Cry of Anubis
by four-eyed vulpine
Summary: Kat remains in Sirian captivity with her newly acquired accompaniment as Anubis and the Rangers devise a plan for her rescue. Chapter Sixteen is now up!
1. Nightmares

**Chapter 1—Nightmares**

It was half past midnight at the S.P.D. Headquarters on planet Earth, and Commander Cruger, the leader of S.P.D., was restless. Horrible nightmares plagued his sleep as he tossed and turned on his bunk, trying to find the end of the agony. After several minutes, he jolted upward to his senses with a loud scream. Though the nightmare was over, the emotional pain Anubis felt continued on. He sat up in bed in a white sleeveless shirt and black boxer shorts and panted for breath as sweat dripped down his body, soaking his clothes and bed sheets. At this point, there was no going to sleep for him anytime soon; Anubis ripped off the covers and stood up.

"Why……why do I keep having these nightmares?"

He walked around his bunk to the door and turned on the lights to his private quarters. Light flooded the room, immediately taking the place of the depressing and unknown aspects of darkness.

"I thought that ordeal was over. I don't understand why I am unconsciously thinking about it so much."

Looking back at the bed and seeing the wet sheets, Anubis growled at his sense of weakness and went to change them. As he pulled them off, water dripped from the hanging corners.

"I sweated that much? These nightmares are getting worse…"

As the commander proceeded to toss the wet sheets in the hamper across the room with the rest of the dirty laundry, quick footsteps were heard in the corridor just outside his quarters. It wasn't much longer when the footsteps stopped and the door alarm began to buzz upon the arrival of the visitor. Anubis' ears perked at the buzzing noise as he finished what he was doing and headed for the door. He held down a button on the nearby door console and spoke into the speaker.

"Identify yourself."

A female voice responded. "It's Dr. Katherine Manx."

Her image at the door from the hidden camera in the hall confirmed that it was her requesting entry. She stood patiently for his response dressed in a white robe and matching pajama pants. Surprised at her presence at this late hour, Anubis opened the door.

"Commander Cruger. I heard you screaming from my quarters. Is anything wrong, sir?

He sighed at her inquiry. "No, Kat, it was just another nightmare. I'm sure I'll get over it shortly."

Kat then sighed with disbelief. "Cruger, this is the fourth nightmare you've had this week. Perhaps it would help if you talked with me about the dreams you've been having."

"Kat, it's really not that important. I can take care of this myself."

"And keep it bottled up inside you longer? You're only hurting yourself more by not telling anyone about your inner feelings. Please, all I want is to help you."

Anubis paused for a moment. "…Fine. You may come in."

They walked inside and sat down beside each other at a table near the center of the room.

"Ok, Doggie, tell me about your dreams."

"I'll tell you about the nightmare I had tonight. It started with me standing in a dark alley wearing my S.P.D. uniform. Within seconds, a gang of other species of dogs emerged from the darkness, armed with several weapons. They approached my position."

"Other species of dogs? You were on Sirius?"

"Yes, or at least it appeared so. They began to mock me and laugh at my appearance, calling me a 'misfit' and a 'freak'. I tried to get away, but they attacked me before I got the chance. They whipped me, beat me, and ripped off my clothes……"

Tears came to Anubis' eyes; he was getting too emotional to continue. Kat noticed this and put her arm around his shoulders.

"Doggie, you're soaked." Kat's arm remained around him, despite the thin filament of sweat that covered Anubis' clothes and scales.

"……Yes, I am aware of that."

"Would you like me to stay here for the time being to keep you company?"

"Kat, you don't have to---"

"I'm not doing it because I _have_ to; I'm doing it because I _want_ to. There's nothing wrong with someone caring about you, Doggie."

Anubis was stunned at her statement. No one ever had such feelings for him before; he was usually known around S.P.D. as a stiff, stern, and stubborn commander. This was the very first time he really ever opened up to anyone at the headquarters about his feelings.

"I would appreciate that. Thank you, Kat."

"You're welcome, Doggie."

Kat took her arm away from him and stood up. She looked at her sweat-covered arm and gave a slight look of disgust at the sight of it.

"Heh, sorry about that." Anubis grinned and rose to his feet.

"Don't worry about it, it'll wash off. What about your other nightmares? Were they just as bad as this one?"

"Yes. Different circumstances, but the same result every night. I really don't want to talk about them, they were horrible."

"I understand, and I'm sorry about what you're going through. If only we knew what was causing them…"

"I have no idea how they came into my head. They were just a random collection of dreams that started at the beginning of this week." He walked over to his bed and wiped sweat from his forehead. "Kat, could you get me a towel, please?"

"No problem, Commander."

Kat went to a restroom in the opposite corner of the room and grabbed a large towel off a rack bolted to the left wall from the entrance. Meanwhile, Anubis took his sweaty shirt off and tossed it on the floor. It landed with a plop as liquid streamed from the mass of wet clothing. It was then when Kat came back into the main room and noticed the shirtless commander by his bed. She was impressed by his tall, muscular physique as she approached. Anubis noticed her footsteps and turned to face her.

"Oh, thanks." He grabbed the towel and wiped his scaly face and muzzle. Normally, Anubis was regressive about his appearance, his words, and his actions. By doing so, he hid his faults from all of those who ranked below him. He also never wanted any assistance and rejected any inquiries of his personal life and past. He hoped no one would one would find out the truth, for he was afraid of what the consequences might be.

However, there was something different about this scenario. The "private" commander had already allowed Kat into his room at a late hour, told her the subject of his nightmares, and accepted her request of staying with him to give comfort. He had done all of this, _plus_ the fact that he wore nothing but black boxer shorts despite her presence. There was something about Kat that was causing Anubis to change, both mentally and emotionally.

Kat took a seat by the table. "Is there anything else that is bothering you?"

"No, that is all I am worried about." Something else was bothering him, however—something much deeper than these nightmares.

Anubis looked at his alarm clock on the nightstand by his bed. It was already quarter past one. He stretched and gave a long yawn. "I'm think I'm ready to go back to sleep."

Kat stood up. "Are you sure you'll be alright?"

"Yes, I am feeling better now, and thank you for your company. Good night, Kat."

"Good night, Commander." She walked out into the dimly lit corridor as the double doors slid shut behind her.

After she had left, Anubis turned off the lights and carelessly fell on his bed, burdened by the weight of his past. It was beginning to destroy him from the inside out, yet he was too scared to tell anybody about it. He softly howled himself to sleep.


	2. The Truth Leaks

**Chapter 2—The Truth Leaks**

The B-Squad Rangers—Jack, Sky, Bridge, Z, and Syd—were dressed in their uniforms of designated colors as they walked as a group down one of the upper corridors of the headquarters on the way to the command center.

Syd rubbed her eyes. "Geez, I would have gotten a lot more sleep last night if I hadn't had heard someone snoring in the next room!" She gave Sky a stern look.

"Hey, Syd, don't look at me. I _never_ snore. It was Bridge; he's the one I have to share a room with."

"Let me guess, he kept you up, too?"

"Good guess."

Both Syd and Sky looked towards Bridge, who was completely impervious to their conversation. He noticed their glare and looked their way.

"…………….What?"

"What do you mean, 'What'?" Sky replied irritably. "You kept Syd and me up practically half the night last night with your awful snoring!"

"…………….I was snoring?"

"Yes you were!" Syd added.

The three rangers continued to argue as the neared the doors of the command center. Jack looked at Z.

"You think we ought to intervene?" he asked.

"Nah, I'm getting a good laugh out of it."

The rangers waited as the double doors slowly slid open. Commander Cruger was nowhere to be found, but Dr. Manx stood just behind the entrance. She had a worried look on her face, as if something had gone wrong. Syd, Sky, and Bridge stopped arguing when they saw her. Jack stepped forward.

"What's wrong, Dr. Manx? Where's the commander?"

"I wish I knew. It's almost 8 o'clock; he's usually here by now."

"He could have fleas; I mean he's a dog after all."

Sky rolled his eyes at Bridge's statement. "Is he still at his quarters?"

"That's the only place I can figure. He had a pretty bad night last night."

"A bad night? How so?" Z asked.

Kat looked down. "He's had horrible nightmares all week."

"Shouldn't someone check on him and see if he's all right?" asked Syd.

"If anyone's going to check on the commander, it would have to be me. Rangers, wait here in the command center for our return." With that, Kat left.

Syd looked at the other rangers. "I really hope he's okay."

Jack sighed. "I wonder what kind of nightmares he was having."

* * *

In his private quarters, Anubis was still asleep, and the same nightmare from last night began to haunt him yet again. He was back in the dark alley on Sirius, before the gang arrived. At this point, Kat had arrived at the entrance of his room. She tried to get the commander's attention via the speakerphone by the door, but to no avail. Sensing there was trouble, she typed in a password on the door console in order to override the lock, and the doors swiftly slid open.

Once inside, she saw Anubis still asleep on the bed and rushed to wake him. She knew he was having another nightmare.

"Doggie! Wake up!"

No response. Anubis continued to unconsciously squirm.

"DOGGIE!"

It was no use. Kat reached into her pocket for her communicator, punched a few buttons, and contacted the rangers who were back in the command center.

"Rangers, this is Dr. Manx. I need you to report to Commander Cruger's quarters immediately! We have a situation!"

Jack's voice was heard in response. "We're on our way!"

Within minutes, the B-Squad Rangers had arrived on the scene.

Back in the nightmare, as the rangers arrived in reality, a gang of six appeared from the shadows. Reality and the dreamscape were beginning to merge, but Anubis was not aware of it at all. He bolted out of bed and faced the rangers, still in his dream. He saw them as the gang that was going to attack him.

"Commander, are you ok?" asked Syd.

"Yeah, you're acting weird," Bridge added.

In his nightmare, everything the rangers spoke in reality was translated in the dreamscape to the mockery and ridicule from the gang members. At this, Anubis took offense.

"Leave me ALONE!" he yelled as he backed into a corner of the room.

Sky approached the frightened commander. "Sir, we're trying to help you."

He had gotten too close. Anubis let out a scream and charged at Sky, throwing a massive punch at his face. Sky flew backwards across the room and slammed into the opposite wall. The other rangers were struck with shock. Kat became upset with Anubis.  
"Stop this madness, NOW!" she screamed. "Get over this! It's just a dream, it isn't real!"

"You're next…" the commander growled as he grabbed Kat by the neck and lifted her off the floor and above his head. She began to choke from the loss of air. Sky, who had gotten up from his collision with the wall, saw this and took action, despite the black eye he had received. He took out his morpher.

"S.P.D.! EMERGENCY!"

With those words, he transformed into the B-Squad Blue Ranger. Jack looked back at him with surprise.

"What! What the heck are you doing!"

The Blue Ranger stepped forward. "Saving Dr. Manx is what I'm doing."

He ran to Anubis' position and pulled a roundhouse kick to his head, causing him to release his grip on Kat and fall to the floor from the unexpected blow. Kat hit the floor and crawled away in pain. Anubis rose to his feet within seconds. Sky stood guard between them in Kat's defense.

"If you're going to hurt Dr. Manx, you're going to have to go through me, first."

"Then that is what I'm going to do."

Anubis threw another, more forceful punch. Sky ducked out of the way and countered with a punch to the commander's gut. It connected, but had no effect. He shoved the Blue Ranger against another wall and cornered him, throwing multiple punches. Sky rolled parallel to the wall back and forth to evade the attacks, each of which making contact with the wall and leaving a large and deep dent. In some places, the wall had even cracked.

On the other side of the room, the rest of the squad was stunned at what they were witnessing.

"I never thought Cruger was that strong!" Z exclaimed.

Kat was weakly leaning on the wall by the entrance of the room massaging her aching neck. "Those walls. They're made of solid titanium, yet he's ripping through them like tissue paper! This is unbelievable…"

"Well, we can't stand here doing nothing!" said Bridge. "Sky needs our help!"

"Bridge is right," Jack replied. "Syd, Z, stay here and take care of Dr. Manx. Bridge, you and I are going to counter. Ready?"

"Ready!"

Jack and Bridge stood in the center of the room and activated their morphers.

"S.P.D.! EMERGENCY!"

They transformed into the B-Squad Red and Green Rangers and attacked Anubis from behind with simultaneous kicks to his back. Taking little, if any, damage from the rangers' counterattack, he diverted his attention to those behind him, allowing Sky to escape from the corner he had gotten caught in. Sky took the opportunity to throw another volley of punches and kicks to Anubis' backside. As he took hits, Anubis turned around again to launch an attack at sky, but Jack and Bridge attacked again from behind. Anubis was surrounded.

"I think we did it!" Syd exclaimed. "Cruger is unable to attack!"

"Don't be so sure," Kat replied. "All of those attacks he's receiving, yet he doesn't even have a scratch. If this keeps up, Sky, Jack, and Bridge will become too tired out to continue the assault. You're going to have to help them."

Z became concerned about Kat's condition. "But what about you?"

Meanwhile, Anubis was facing the Red and Green rangers, and it was Sky's turn to attack. However, before Sky's volley could connect, Anubis did a back-flip over his head and landed with a quake that shook the floor. He then lifted Sky off the ground and threw him at Jack and Bridge, knocking them all to the floor. He then quickly approached their position.

"THIS ENDS NOW!"

With that, he lifted his bed off the floor and held it over the downed rangers, preparing to crush them with about 300 pounds of weight.

"Don't worry about me! Go, now!" yelled Kat as she saw what was happening. Syd and Z stood up and activated their morphers.

"S.P.D.! EMERGENCY!"

In an instant, they became the B-Squad Pink and Yellow Rangers and took action. They both pummeled Anubis from the side with another volley of kicks and punches, catching him off guard and making him lose his grip on the bed. It fell and landed with a crash beside the other rangers.

"That was close," said Jack as he, Bridge, and Sky stood back up.

"It's not over yet," Z replied as they turned to Cruger, who was rising back to his feet.

"How the heck can we beat this guy?" Bridge asked.

Kat responded. "The only way we can snap him out of his dreamscape is to knock him unconscious!"

"We're going to have to hit him in the head," said Sky. "And hard."

"That's using your head, Sky," chuckled Jack. "Everyone ready?"

"Ready!"

Anubis stood before the line of B-Squad Power Rangers filled with rage, though he was still in his nightmare with the gang. With a horrific scream of anger, he charged ferociously at the center ranger, Jack.

"Now!" Jack yelled. "Everyone attack!"

At the red rangers command, all five rangers performed roundhouse kicks that connected with the commander's forehead, sending him flying into the wall and onto the floor. Blood oozed from the wound and streamed down his face and muzzle. The combined attack had worked; Anubis was out cold.


	3. Awakening of Form

**Chapter 3—Awakening of Form**

The rangers and Katt stood around Anubis as he lay motionless and unconscious on a table in the sick bay of the headquarters. They had transported him there immediately after the skirmish in his room just a half hour before.

"When do you think he'll wake up?" asked Jack.

"He should come to any second now," Kat replied. "The combination attack you and the other rangers performed was enough to knock him out, but it seems that such a blow would be only a fraction of what it would take to inflict real damage."

"We made him bleed, didn't we?" Sky asked as he held his head in pain from the earlier blow.

"It seems he did the same to you," she answered as she pointed to Sky's black eye. It had started bleeding. "Come with me, we need to get that fixed immediately. The rest of you should come as well; I ran some tests on the commander as soon as we arrived, and I think you'd be surprised at the results. Believe me, I was."

"I……I'm going to stay with Cruger……in case he wakes up before you return," said Z, who remained by the commander's side as the others were leaving.

"Sure," answered Jack. "We'll brief you on the details."

Kat and the others left for another room on the same floor. Meanwhile, Z looked down at the resting Anubis. She raised her bare hand and rested on his exposed upper torso, sliding it across his scaly blue abdominal muscles. She sensed something was troubling him. Something huge.

"I hope you're going to be all right," she said. "When you saved me from my attackers years ago when I was a child, you gave me hope. You were the first person who cared. If only there was some way I could repay you for what you've done for me…"

He opened his eyes.

"Z, there is a way," he said, taking her by surprise. "You can listen to what I have to say."

"Commander?"

"Please, sit down."

Anubis sat up and let his legs hang over the side of the table as Z hopped up and sat beside him.

"What do you want to tell me, Commander?"

"I would rather you called me by my first name, Anubis. I want to talk to you not as a superior but as fellow being."

"Anubis? That's your real name?"

"Yes, it is. I feel I can relate to your situation. Jack's as well."

"In what way,…Anubis?"

"You see………I grew up on the streets just as you did when you were younger. I was an outcast in my world. I never learned what love or joy or fun was until I came to Earth. I never had any of those things.

"I don't believe it. In grade school, I was ridiculed by the other students because of my special abilities. There was no way I could fit in. As you already know, both of my parents were dead before I even reached middle school. I was alone, but then you came along when I was in trouble. You gave me hope in my darkest hour. If it weren't for you, I don't know how I could have ended up." Tears came to her eyes as she spoke. It wasn't much longer before she completely broke down and hugged Anubis tightly.

"Thank you, Anubis."

He returned the embrace, shedding tears of his own. These feelings were unknown to him, but he was thankful for the ability to finally experience them for the first time.

"Remember how you wished to repay me?" he asked.

"…Yes."

"With this………you've repaid me more than I could ever ask for."

In an adjacent room, the other rangers poured over the commander's test results, and they were shocking.

"This is what I have found out," said Kat, holding a stack of papers. She set them down on a nearby counter and started scanning through them. "First of all, his immune system and healing rate are off the charts."

"Off the bottom of the charts, or off the top of the charts?" Bridge asked.

"If it was off the bottom, he would have bled to death," she replied.

"Oh."

"Anyway, the distribution of his body mass is way off and out of proportion."

"Out of proportion?" asked Jack.

"Well, let's say that a normal human-like being has an even distribution of mass. Cruger's is not the case. Though he is human-like, there were several abnormalities."

"Like…" said Sky."

"Look at this." Kat put a color-coded diagram of the commander's body on a lighted wall panel. "Okay. Areas in green represent normal mass. Blue areas represent lower than normal mass, and red indicates higher than normal mass. A normal person's diagram would be completely green."

"His entire back is red, really red," Syd commented.

"Yeah, but his sides and the front of his neck are blue!" Bridge added.

"Uh, but why is his is…um…rear end red?" asked Jack.

"Maybe he's really constipated," said Bridge.

"Oh my gosh, that is so nasty," Syd said with disgust.

"What is causing all of this?" asked Sky. He had a bandage over his right eye, but the bleeding had stopped.

"I'm not sure, there haven't been any leads thus far." Kat took the transparency off the wall and put it in a folder. "There was one more thing. I did some research on the different species on planet Sirius, the commander's home planet. It turns out that he doesn't fit under any of the taxonomical classifications."

"Uh…._what_?" Syd asked, puzzled.

"Please excuse Syd, Dr. Manx, she's not very fluent in the scientific language," Jack said with a grin. Syd just glared at him.

"What I mean is that he is of unknown origin. His species does not exist in any of the records. No one can even begin to figure out what species he'd fall under."

"Hmm, I wonder if Cruger is aware of this," Bridge said. "Do you think he's awake yet?"

"He might," Kat replied. "Let's go check on him."

They filed out into the corridor and went inside the room next door. There they saw Z and Anubis sitting together on the table.

"Doggie! Are you okay?" Kat asked with urgency.

"Yes, I'm fine, I think. How long was I out? What happened?

"About forty minutes. You might want to see this." Kat handed him the folder with his test data. Anubis opened it and looked over the papers and transparencies, stunned at what he saw.

"How did you find this out?" His voice was stern as he closed the folder. Kat was afraid that she had entered forbidden territory.

"I had some tests run, commander…"

He let out a deep sigh and looked down at the floor. His truth was beating at him more than ever now. It was time.

"There is something about me that you all must know." Anubis stood up. "Z, join the others. Stand back."

Z joined the other rangers and Kat on the opposite side of the room. Anubis began to concentrate. Seconds later, small slits opened up on the sides of his body. They continued to expand until they were about six inches long and a half inch wide. As that process was completed, more slits opened up on the front of his neck. The slits—they were gills. He then reached back, and ripped a hole in the back of his boxer shorts. A tail emerged and jolted outward in a single motion, extending ten feet with a thickness of eight inches at the widest point. Spikes rose from the tip of the tail, extending nearly a foot upward. Anubis' feet spread out like webs, and the claws grew longer. Structures emerged from his back, slowly at first, but then whipping out quickly and spreading out around the room, thirty feet from both of his sides—three pairs of wings. Two more pairs followed suit, each the same length as the first. His overall size increased by about ten percent. The transformation was complete. The others were shocked.

"What…what has happened to you?" Z asked with surprise. "You've……changed."

"This is who I really am," he replied, stepping forward.

"Somebody pinch me," said Bridge with his mouth hanging open.

"Doggie, you've been on this planet for years," Kat said. "Why did you wait until now to show us this?"

"Because……because I was……afraid," he replied.

"Afraid?" Sky asked. "Afraid of what?"

"Afraid……of being rejected."

"You're kidding," Jack replied. "Why would we even think of doing that? If we wanted to do that, we would have been expelled!"

"Do you see what you're saying Jack?" Anubis replied. "You're accepting me because of the incentive of staying at S.P.D. That is a matter of force. What I'm saying is that no one has ever accepted me by his or her own will."

"You mean," Syd started.

"Yes, Syd," he answered. "I have been hated by everyone my whole life because of my appearance—my disfigurement in comparison to other beings. All I ever wanted was acceptance."

"This can't be true!" Z exclaimed, stepping towards him. "You've saved my life and have led our planet in the defense of our enemies. You are a hero!"

Anubis smiled. "Thank you, Z. But things weren't always the same. I am still haunted by my past to this day."

"You could tell us about it," said Kat.

"I'd rather not bring it up," he replied. "I do not want to be reminded again."

Kat stepped towards him and placed his hands in hers. "It will help more than it will harm if you just tell us about what happened. We want to help you. I want to help you."

The rangers agreed with her and stepped towards him, willing to help as well. Anubis was speechless at their response. He was deeply moved by their show of concern for him.

"Okay, then, I will tell you everything," he replied after the pause. "Please, have a seat somewhere; this could take some time."

Everyone took seats wherever they could around the room; Anubis sat back on his recovery bed as Kat sat on his right and Z on his left. He used the corner of his right front wing to press a few buttons on a console by the entrance of the room to close the door.

"So, where do we start?" Jack asked, sitting in a chair directly across from the commander.

"We can start with my anatomy," Anubis replied, gesturing toward his wings and gills. "Do you recall seeing the part of my records that showed that I belonged to no existing species on my home planet of Sirius?"

"Yes," Kat replied. "Do you know why?"

"I do," Anubis replied. "I was not _born_ to parents like you all were."

"How is that possible?" asked Sky. "You have to be born in order to exist."

"Not in my case," he answered. "These mutations in my anatomy—they are genetic enhancements. I do not have parents. The reason being is because I was _created_. I was created by scientists on Sirius."

There was silence. This idea of creation was radically new to others, and they did not know how to react to this. Anubis waited a few seconds; he then continued his autobiography.

"I understand if the explanation of my being is going way over your heads, but I feel that you must know this. The scientists wanted to create an ultimate being. I was the final result of their experimentation."

"An ultimate being?" Z asked.

"I think they succeeded in that; you look pretty 'ultimate' to me." commented Syd, who sat on a counter by the entrance.

"I'm pleased you think that of me," Anubis replied, "but I wasn't what the scientists wanted. They thought I looked hideous and assumed that I would never belong to the Sirian society. As a result, they prepared to have me terminated by lethal injection. I was to be terminated the next day."

A few tears came to his eyes as he spoke, for the memory was very traumatizing to think about, especially when it occurred during the first minutes of his life. No one can remember the first years of his or her life, but Anubis could remember everything with horrific detail. He had carried these daunting memories privatized in his mind for 37 Sirian years, converting to 185 years on planet Earth. Kat saw his tears and engaged in a partial embrace.

"I needed that. Thanks, Kat."

"Hmm, I have an idea. Maybe you could say… 'strut your stuff'?" asked Bridge.

"Meaning…" said Anubis.

"He thinks you could show off your genetic enhancements," Sky replied. "It would probably cheer you up a bit."

"I think you have something there," Anubis replied. "This could be interesting; I haven't flown, swam, or fought in this form in quite a while. It is settled then. Rangers, I will meet you on the training field outside in ten minutes. Dismissed."

The rangers left immediately as he and Kat stood up.

"Kat, thanks for taking care of me while I was unconscious," he said to her. "You can tell me what caused me to pass out later. I'm going back to my room to prepare."


	4. Let's Fight

**Chapter 4—Let's Fight**

Dressed in casual S.P.D. attire—black sweats and S.P.D. t-shirts of corresponding color—the B-squad walked briskly onto the training field just northwest of the base. There were numerous cadets already in the middle of sessions, practicing martial arts, self-defense, and police maneuvers. The commander was nowhere to be found, at least not yet.

"I can't believe what has happened," said Z. "I always thought Cruger was, in a way, physically disadvantaged. I mean, have you ever seen him wear anything other than that constricting black robe he always has on?"

"Yeah, that and I really don't see why he had to hide all that power," added Bridge. "I mean, if I was strong and buff like that, I'd be strutting down the halls of the academy showing off my muscles!" There was silence as the rest of the rangers stared at him in disbelief, but they did mentally comply that he had a point.

"I still can't get over the thought of being created like that," Sky commented. "Most attempts at things like that I hear of don't even get past the embryonic stage. The scientists on Sirius, however, managed to create a life-form to his fullest extent, yet, the only reason they had behind desiring to terminate him was his appearance? That is just sick."

"I agree with you, Sky," Syd said. "Knowing all of this, I have a new-found respect for our commander. What are the odds of being created in a lab and surviving the life that he's lived? He is definitely a special person in my book."

"Well, the one thing I'm thinking about right now is having to fight him again after what we faced in his quarters," stated Jack. "You saw him, he was beating dents in a _titanium wall_! We're doomed."

"I wouldn't worry about that," said Sky. "At least he'll be _conscious _this time around. If he knows he has that kind of power, you can bet on him holding back quite a bit on us." The rangers stopped walking when they reached a spot by a medium-sized pond at the other end of the field. As soon as they got there, Anubis and Kat came onto the field. Surprisingly, he had his commander robe on, while Kat was dressed in black pants and a white lab coat. Within a few minutes, they reached the squad. The rangers gave the S.P.D. salute to the commander and jolted to attention.

"At ease, B-squad," said Anubis. They relaxed. "I take it that you and your team are ready to train, Jack?"

"We're ready, sir," Jack replied, "but the real question is 'Are _you_ ready'?"

"Hold on a moment. Kat, take this for me." Anubis undid his belt buckle and buttons on his uniform front and let the robe slide off his shoulders, exposing his muscular upper torso—a blue body with outlined polygonal scales and a light blue underside. Black chokers with inch-long silver spikes were strapped to his neck, shoulders, elbows, and wrists. Black cargo pants covered his lower torso, complete with a belt with double spike rows and chains draping from his pockets, and there was another pair of spiked chokers around his ankles. His tail was already extended out to its full length, with another three straps of spikes around it in various places. The robe slid down to his wrists, where he removed his arms from the sleeves and handed it to Kat. She took it and held it in her arms as she stared blankly at the commander's build.

"Ok, now I'm ready."

Syd leaned over and whispered to Sky, "Wow, he looks kind of hot, don't you think?" Sky, not knowing how to respond to that, just gave her a weird look.

Jack heard them and whispered back to Syd, "He looks more like a punked-out guard dog like you see at those garbage dumps."

The commander, with his large ears, heard both comments and rolled his eyes. "Let's get started. Who's first?"

"I'll take you on," Sky replied, stepping forward.

"Uh, what happened to your eye?" Anubis asked, pointing at the bandage. "You sure you'll be able to fight with one eye?"

"I'll manage."

"Well, okay then, it's your funeral—I mean…uh……oh forget it. Let's go."

The commander began the fight by taking an immediate offensive, throwing a series of punches. Sky, fearing massive damage with any impact, dodged the volley and countered with punches of his own. All of the attacks connected with Anubis' front side, but had no effect; he just stood there and looked down at Sky and his futile attacks. After a minute, he spoke up. "How long do you plan on doing that?"

Sky began to slow down the volley of punches as he realized that Anubis wasn't even flinching. He did however drop down and trip the commander, taking him by surprise and sending him to the ground. "A big mistake, commander," he said. "Never let your guard down in the face of an oppon---"

Before he could finish, Anubis forcefully stood up on his hands and performed a swift 900-degree pinwheel kick with his legs fully extended, connecting with Sky's chest and launching him into mid-air before crashing down on the ground twenty feet away. Immediately after the move, Anubis pushed off the ground and flipped to his feet. Kat stood in shock as the rangers ran to Sky's aid. To their surprise, he managed to rise to his feet after the blow.

"Sky, you all right?" Jack asked.

"I got the wind knocked out of me for a second there, but I'm okay." he replied. Anubis walked toward them. He chuckled. "You were saying? Jack, get ready."

With that, the commander pulled a teleporter out of his pocket and pressed a few buttons. Within a second, a pair of swords that were previously tucked away in a weapons chamber at the nearby academy molecularized above the device. He took the swords and tossed one to Jack. "You can probably guess what we're going to do."

"Guess? Oh, I _know_." Jack took the first offensive this time with a vertical swipe to Anubis' chest. Blocked. A horizontal swipe to his neck a second later. Blocked. A triple stab another second later. Blocked, blocked, and blocked. "My turn."

Anubis attacked next, with a series of fifteen swipes within eight seconds, each of them at a different angle. Like Sky, Jack was afraid to block, so he dodged a few at a time by switching to different sides of the attack, even rolling under some the nearly horizontal swipes. The commander scoffed at his evasion. "Why won't you block? What, are you scared? That's a shame, I thought you knew better."

His remark angered Jack, as he lunged forward with a sudden horizontal slice. Anubis side-stepped the attack, but not without getting a few locks of scales sliced off the right side of his scalp. He growled as he countered with a fury of vertical swipes. Jack raised his sword in a horizontal defending position to block. The defensive seemed to hold up during the swipe storm—that is, until Anubis was finished. Jack's blade collapsed into thin slices that fell into a pile of metal on the grass. The B-squad leader stood there, shaking in shock, and still holding the handle in the same position as he slowly looked down at what was his weapon.

"You…you broke my sword!"

"You broke my hair."


	5. Meanwhile, Evil Advances

**Chapter 5—Meanwhile, Evil Advances**

As the training session ensued on Earth, a massive ship entered Mars' orbit path at a high velocity of Warp 0.01, or approximately 1,683 miles per second—one hundredth of light speed. It was a Sirius-class warship—about 1.2 miles in length and a passenger capacity of 190,000, or that of a small city on Earth. Though the capacity was high, only about 3,400 were actually on board the ship. Those few thousand occupants were members of the largest gang of the Sirian planet; they called themselves the "Red-eyed Bandits."

The gang, formerly Sirius-bound and terrorizing the capital city and surrounding suburbs, had recently become free of the planet's bonds and was now spreading its terror across the galaxy, attacking any civilized planets that intercepted their flight path. Evil was their specialty. They lived only for themselves and no one else.

The gang leader, a blood red, tall, and muscular dog with a white underside, entered the highest level of the spacious control deck and took a seat at his circular command console. He certainly had the build and the look of the first in command. A black, sleeveless, and unbuttoned vest was draped over his shoulders with his upper torso exposed; his ripped, black, baggy pants sagged a little below his waist. The most notable feature of his appearance was the arsenal he was carrying—at least ten firearms were on his person, attached by straps and belts on various places of his body.

A fox in similar apparel on one of the lower levels spoke up upon his entry. "We're entering the orbit of this system's fourth planet, sir!"

"Let's see, the last five planets in this system were lifeless and useless…….I'm guessing the same for this one. Are we within range for a life scan?"

"We'll have to perform a sharp deceleration and change direction by 90 degrees, following the planet's trajectory. At our current rate, we should be within range in about thirty minutes."

"That long? Nice," he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes to the ceiling viewport with displeasure. "I'll be in my quarters. Notify me of any developments via the intercom."

"Yes, sir!"

The leader—his name was Sinubus—stood from his seat with a sigh and turned for the door behind him. A long corridor was revealed behind the sliding steel doors. He walked inside and entered the first door on his right about ten feet down the hall—the entrance to his quarters. Though he was the leader, his private room on the warship was nothing much—an unmade bed, a desk with a laptop, dirty clothes on floor, weapons strewn about, a nightstand covered with clutter in another corner. Blank of emotion, he unclasped his weapon belts letting them drop into a pile on the floor, closed the door and fell back onto his bed, staring at the stars through the transparent ceiling. The ship takes a right turn, and the star trails change direction with the curve. He thought aloud.

"What a life this is. Scouring entire cities and making people suffer. It's fun; I get a feeling of power as I torture victims. But…something seems missing. It's like I'm missing half of my being, and that other half is somewhere in this endless universe for me to find. It is my purpose in life to find that other half. When I find it, ultimate power will be within grasp."

There was one more thing about him that he revealed as he thought. The leader existed with amazing fire-manipulating abilities. He wasn't like the other dogs in his gang, but this was the main reason they respected his authority over the gang and the flames. Holding a hand above him, he formed a fireball in his palm and tossed it to his other hand, catching it. He tossed it back and forth, careful not to drop it.

"This ability, I know why I have it. To destroy, to kill, to conquer, and to control. What other purpose does fire have in this universe? To help others? I think not. Sure, it gives you heat when you're cold, it can heat your food to make it more edible. Otherwise, it can burn anything to just molecules of energy when used in an extreme manner. I am more attracted to the latter result—the destructive result. It gives me power, and I thrive on such power."

His train of thought was interrupted by the intercom, shaking him out of concentration and shaking the ball of fire out of his hands and onto the bed, catching the blanket on fire. He quickly rolled on it with his body to put it out, but not without the heat burning a hole in the covers.

"Damn it, what do you want?" he said sternly, sitting up.

Another voice from the control deck answered, "We are within twenty minutes of our destination, sir."

Sinubus was quiet for a moment, then replied, "Okay, you wrecked my concentration and made me burn a hole in my bed just to tell me the time! I'm not stupid; I know what a half-hour is."

"Sorry, sir." The intercom clicked off.

"I really need to limit the use of the intercom around this ship. Every minute, I hear a useless report on it." The leader got off the bed and yanked the covers off. The flames burned all the way into the mattress. As he went across the room to a storage cell in the opposite corner for more covers, a strong surge of energy enveloped his entire nervous system, making him collapse with a scream. Some guard dogs of the rottweiler species heard him from outside and barged inside. Sinubis growled in pain as he squirmed on the floor, trying to overcome the energy.

"What's happening to you!" one of them asked in shock, unsure of how to help the situation.

"I…I'm sensing a great power…" Sinubis growled.

"Huh?"

"Just shutup and get out of here……I…I can handle this…"

They shrugged and left, but kept the door open in case the situation got worse. However, the energy surge dissipated as time passed. The leader overcame the anomaly within ten minutes, but was physically exhausted from the manual effort.

"I've never felt like that before. Somehow, I could sense an energy level equal to mine, and it isn't even far from here! Could this be what I've been searching for?"

He immediately rose off the floor, grabbed his weapons, headed for the control deck. Upon entry he announced to crew. "I'm picking a massive source of energy 100 degrees to the bow's left. Do we have any information on the rest of the planets in this system?

"I'll look in our archives for some data," replied a dog on his level. Sinubis sat back down in his command chair and waited, eager to hear the results. He got what he wanted a few minutes later. "The next planet in this system is Earth, the only known planet in this universe where the human species exists. Population is 8.4 billion."

"No way," said Sinubis, surprised at what he had just learned. "Here we are, randomly scouring this galaxy for valuables, and we just happen to be within short flying distance of this human-inhabited blue orb that everyone in this region has heard so much about! What direction is the planet in relation to our position?"

Another dog spoke up from in front of a nearby viewport. "According to our long range navigation scanners…the planet is in the exact direction in which you located that energy source—100 degrees to the left of the bow."

"Then it's settled!" Sinubis stood up. "Change course 100 degrees to the left. Accelerate the ship to the prior velocity. Destination: Earth."


	6. Skirmish Escalation

**Chapter 6—Skirmish Escalation**

Back in Newtech city, the training session between B-squad and their commander raged on. The cadets were resorting to double, and triple teaming Anubis in an attempt to bring him down, but to no avail. The failure of the last triple team resulted in Jack, Sky, and Bridge getting beat to the ground from a lateral cartwheel Anubis pulled—diving into mid-air, then extending all extremities while spinning a complete revolution at an angle parallel to the ground. As the guys tried to recover from the strong attack, the ladies stared at Anubis with awe.

"How does he do that?" asked Syd. "He pulled off an impossible move like that and acts like it was nothing. He even _landed_ it perfectly!"

"Yeah, I didn't know he was so tough," added Kat, "and I've known him for fifteen years! This is just too crazy for me to comprehend."

"Umm, guys, shouldn't we rather be helping the boys instead of gawking about Cruger's awesomeness?" Z asked. The others soon realized their comrades' needs and agreed as they ran with Z to the others. They were on their feet once the girls got there.

"You alright, Jack?" Z asked, concerned.

"Just a little pissed, that's all," Jack replied with a hint of irritation in his voice. "Commander, I'm ready for another sparring match. Are you up to it?"

"Of course I am," Anubis answered. "You could use a second chance anyway; I wasn't really impressed by your last attempts with a sword." He pulled the transporter out of his pocket and prepared to warp another weapon to the field for Jack, since the other one was reduced to shreds.

"I'm fighting, too," said Sky, stepping forward.

"Me too," added Bridge.

"Don't forget us," Syd said.

"Yeah, if one, two, or even three of us can't beat you, then maybe the five of us together can," Z stated.

"Very well then," said Anubis as he pressed some buttons on the transporter. "I like your mindset, Z. And yes, I've noticed a great increase in attack power when you use teamwork." Within seconds, the glow of the hologram subsided, and the weapons floated above the device. Anubis grabbed the nine swords and gave each of the cadets a weapon.

Bridge had a puzzled look on his face. "Wait a minute, why did you beam _nine_ swords to the field for? You already have the sword from before, plus the four extra swords, and you can't wield _five_ swords at once."

"You're right, Bridge," he replied. "I can't wield five swords at once……with my _hands_." With that, the commander opened his inner pair of wings from his back. He tossed each wing a sword, and each wing wrapped tightly around the handles for a firm grip. Next, a third weapon was tossed over his head, and his tail caught it with a likewise wrap-around motion. The tail then curved around to Anubis' front side. The fourth and fifth blades were held in each hand. "You guys ready for me?"

Of course, the ladies' jaws dropped again; they were _far_ from ready. Bridge and Sky weren't totally floored like Syd and Z were, but they were shocked and nervous, nonetheless.

"Great," said Sky. "Just when you thinks he's reached his capacity, his capacity _grows_."

"Um, about helping Jack, can I change my mind?"

"Um, no," Anubis replied mockingly.

"Come on, guys, we can take him!" exclaimed Jack as he without warning charged at Anubis with his blade outstretched, screaming. The others soon took notice of his sudden advance and followed suit. On impact, all rangers attacked simultaneously, but the commander performed a simultaneous block as well, deflecting all of the attacks. They held their positions.

"Tell me that isn't the best you cadets can do," Anubis scoffed, hoping for more of a challenge.

"Not even close," Jack replied. They immediately began a new offensive technique of attacking in patterns. Each ranger attacked at an average rate of one attack per second, but each would attack at different intervals throughout the second to spread out the attack power. Such a technique was the equivalent of _five_ separate attacks per second instead of one combined attack. Anubis had to split his attention among the slashes, jabs, and stabs considerably, but he remained focused enough to block every single attack. After the melee raged for three minutes, Syd and Z backed out from exhaustion; after four minutes, Sky and Bridge did the same. However, Jack continued to fight despite the five-to-one odds.

Once another minute had passed, Anubis took a sudden offensive, folding his wings to the lateral, outstretching his tail and arms, and spinning in place for a continuous spin attack. Jack, overwhelmed by the surprise attack, fell to the ground under the spinning blades. The commander sensed his moved and performed a transition from a spin to a combined vertical slice, like a five-pronged fork smacking the ground with massive force. Jack rolled between two of the falling blades before impact.

"There you go again, running instead of blocking," Anubis said with a sigh. "Hasn't anyone taught you how to block?"

The B-squad leader was already pissed off with him for belittling his defensive abilities before, and this was just icing on the cake. He dropped his sword, rose to his feet, and smashed Anubis in the face with his fist as hard as he could. The sudden impact knocked him backwards, where he stumbled over the bank of the pond and fell in, followed by a sizeable splash. The other rangers and Kat rushed over to the shore as he emerged from the surface, spitting a stream of water from his muzzle.

"Why the hell did you do that?" yelled Sky, angered by Jack's impulsive action.

"Yeah," Z added, "Just because you don't like what someone says doesn't mean that gives you right to punch their lights out!"

"What?" asked an irritated Jack. "Since when did you side with Sky anyway?"

"Um, guys?" asked Bridge, looking at the pond where Anubis was doing something with his arm, all while the red, blue, and yellow rangers continued to argue.

"NOT NOW, BRIDGE!" they all said in unison, and they kept right on griping.

Syd and Kat were seeing what was going on in the water as well. "You guys, shutup! Cruger's doing something weird!"

The others split their attention to the pond for a second, then realized that Anubis wasn't making an attempt to get out of the chest-deep water. By this time, he had his arm outstretched toward the sky, and five large, liquid tentacles emerged from the water's surface in front of him. In a few seconds, the tentacles ends had merged at the bottom, and eventually became one structure. Once the thing stopped rising, the complete structure of water was revealed—a hand.

"What the heck!" exclaimed Sky. "How did he…" His voice trailed off as he stood in shock. Many other cadets on the field at that time had stopped their training as the liquid appendage loomed over the B-Squad. Suddenly, Anubis lowered the angle of his outstretched arm and clamped his fingers into a fist. The imitation hand followed immediately, coming down to the ground and forming a fist around Jack. He then retracted his arm, to his body, still holding the fist. Jack floated over the surface of the pond to him, still in the fist. He looked at the now frightened Jack in the eyes.

"Try that stunt with me again, Landors, and your ass is MINE," he growled. Finally, Anubis released his grip, sending Jack plummeting into the pond. As soon as he emerged, the commander relinquished command of his liquid counterpart as well, letting it dissipate into a downpour on top of the B-squad leader—icing on his own cake, so to speak. The rest of the onlookers burst into laughter as Jack clambered onto the shore. Anubis waded to the edge, but didn't get out.

"Let me guess; water-manipulation is your genetic power, am I right?" Kat asked.

"You catch on quick," Anubis replied, raising a hand out of the water, with a ball of liquid the size of a basketball floating above it. "Of course, this power wasn't actually a strength that I was intended to have as a result of the creation. It was more like a side-effect."

"Kind of like us and our powers?" asked Z.

"Yeah, since our abnormalities came from our parents when they were infected by an anomaly from a lab experiment," Syd added.

"You have a point about that," the commander replied. "I guess we have more in common than previously thought."

"Yeah, but what about get-up you're wearing?" Sky asked. "It just doesn't seem fitting for the commander of S.P.D. to be wearing a sort of gang member outfit."

"This style, in a way, traces back where I came from when I was younger." Anubis said, shooting a glance at Jack and Z. They remembered their origins immediately—Z as a misfit schoolgirl who ran away into the streets; Jack as an orphaned boy who never found the balance between good and bad. They knew what he was talking about, but—though Z knew part of his story already—they really didn't want to believe it.

Their thoughts were interrupted by a series of explosions that rocked the region. In an instant, 75 Krybots of unknown origin materialized nearly a football field in distance from the rangers' positions. They approached quickly with their laser arms drawn, ready to fire.

"Rangers, form a defensive!" Anubis ordered.

"YES, SIR!" they shouted in unison, pulling out their morphers and entering stance. "S.P.D., EMERGENCY!"

With the morphing sequence complete, the Power Rangers burst into action, placing themselves in a line between the Krybot army and the Space Patrol Delta Base. The red ranger readied his Delta Blasters and began firing at the mass of metal, destroying a robot every two to three seconds. Bridge quickened the pace a bit with his Deltamax Striker. The Krybots began to fire back, resulting in repeated explosions throughout the arena. Sky used his genetic ability of shielding to form a one-way barrier, deflecting their offense and allowing the other rangers to fire. Soon, the remaining enemies wised up and performed a simultaneous laser blast with the power of 40 Krybots. The impact was too strong for Sky's shield and knocked all the rangers to the ground with a massive explosion. The ground rocked with shockwaves for a full minute. Meanwhile, Anubis helped Kat off the ground. They were watching the rangers defend from about four-hundred feet away. Except for them, the Krybots, and the rangers, the field was deserted; the cadets had already fled into the base.

"This is bad," said Kat. "There's still more than thirty of them, and the rangers are down. You might need to step in and help."

Anubis agreed, though he wanted to see the rangers achieve success on their own and not use their commander as a crutch. "I guess I have no choice. I need the water-telekinesis practice anyway." He turned back toward the pond and bolted both arms outward at the liquid body. Once he had his grip, he moved his arms upward. Slowly, the entire volume of the pond lifted out of the ground in its original shape. Soon, his arms were stretching for the sky; the mass of water was above his head now. Just as the army of Krybots was about to inflict another blow on the crippled rangers, Anubis screamed for their attention.

"HEY, YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME!"

Of course, that instantly changed their target from the rangers to him as they charged. He then slammed his outstretched arms to the ground, making the water do likewise onto the Krybots, shorting all of their circuits and causing them to explode. He and Kat then ran to the rangers, who had already powered down due to the suit damage.

"You guys all right?" he asked, helping Jack and Z up.

"We're a little weak from that combination attack, but we'd be a lot worse off without your help," Z replied. "Thanks."

"Yeah, um, about that," Jack started, "You did all of that? I know it's a genetic power you have, but throwing a pond's worth of water around like a toy goes way over my head."

"I know it's a lot a power, but it's just how I was made. I can't really change it. You'll probably get used to it after a while."

"Yeah, a _really long_ while," Syd remarked.

Just then, there was another series of explosions, this time much larger than the first. Immediately, a larger group of 250-300 Krybots appeared, larger than any of the rangers had ever seen. They were surrounded, as if looking into the face of impending doom no matter where they looked. The Krybots all had their laser arms ready to fire an enormous simultaneous blast for their first shot to end things quick.

"I guess this is the end," Bridge said, looking around at the army.

"Don't think like that, Bridge, there's gotta be a way out of this," Sky replied.

"But how, our morphers are virtually fried from the last attack," stated Syd.

"She's right," added Z. "We can't even morph, and their numbers have more than tripled."

"Doesn't anybody have an idea?" asked Jack.

"Yeah, Doggie, you look like you might have a plan," Kat said.

"I have one, but I'm not sure if I have enough power to pull it off," Anubis replied.

"We're running out of options!" she yelled.

Anubis nodded. He crossed his arms across his chest, pulling all of the moisture out of the environment from the earlier explosion of water and into a sphere that protected the seven of them from an impending attack. The moment the barrier was complete, the Krybots fired the combined attack, resulting in a mega-explosion. When the smoke cleared, the barrier remained intact with the rangers, Kat, and Anubis still inside. His eyes were glowing blue—a sign that the next move was going be severe. The commander growled as he focused the energy of the water down to a single point in front of his body. The energy levels were enormous; so much, in fact, that he began to levitate above the ground. The energy was flowing through his body and the condensed point at such a fast rate that levitation began to result from the power. Finally, Anubis let all the power loose with a prolonged and massive scream, along with the outstretching of all of his extremities to their physical limits. The water exploded from the condensed point and began to spin into a massive disc. Within seconds, the lateral spin had a diameter of 500 feet with a rotating speed of 200 miles per hour—the equivalent of an ultimate Category 5 hurricane. The liquid chaos lasted for thirty seconds. To end the move, he gradually stopped the spin of the disc and let it collapse to the now destroyed field. The water finally concentrated itself back into the mass it once was and filled the hole in the ground, forming the pond once again. He fell to his knees and panted for breath from weakness.

Jack and the other rangers surveyed the damage done. All that was left was a bare field covered with piles of robot pieces. The one attack had obliterated them all.

"I…I can't believe it," Syd said. "He saved us."

Z and Kat kneeled down to the commander's level and grabbed his arms, helping him to his feet.

"I guess I had enough in me after all…" he said, with a slight smile. Kat hugged him, thankful to be alive, but also proud of Anubis' incredible efforts. Suddenly, the scientist was ripped away from the embrace by an invisible force. As she floated in the air, he tried to run after her, but fell from weakness after a few steps. Soon, Kat, herself, disappeared under the invisibility veil, like a cloaking device of some sort. Her screams could still be heard as it quickly faded out into the distance.

Anubis screamed in sadness, frustration, anger, and pain. He pounded the ground with his fists.

"NO! _NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"_


	7. The Captive and the Captor

**Chapter 7—The Captive and the Captor**

Kat continued to scream for help as she soared through the air with her invisible assailant. She did, however, realize that she was under the cloaking device as well, so she eventually gave up on her efforts since no one could see her. Once they had flown outside of Newtech City airspace and the city limits, her captor dropped the cloak, revealing Kat and his own identity. It was Sinubus.

Kat took her first look at him and gasped in shock at his appearance. Other than his red _scale_ color instead of blue, he looked completely identical to Anubis. She decided to remain quiet until their eventual landing.

As they flew farther from the city limits, Sinubus, with Kat in his arms, began to circle in the air over a sizeable clearing by the coast. It was a strange sight to behold; the grassy plain had most of its grass flattened to the ground, with several exceptions along the perimeter. It was like there was something enormous and invisible sitting on the field in that spot. They landed in an unaltered area of the clearing. Kat wriggled her way out of his grip, and darted backwards, hissing.

"Who are you?" she yelled as she positioned herself in a defensive stance. "What do you want with me!"

"You're a feisty one, aren't you?" he replied. "I'd expect nothing less from a ferocious kitty such as you."

Already angered that he had kidnapped her, Kat lunged at Sinubus with a scream. As she was ready to attack, the gang leader sidestepped the move with ease and grabbed her arms, holding them behind her back in a lock. She kept hissing despite her immobility.

"I'd quit trying to resist if I were you," he said, holding her close and walking to the flattened grass. "You're miles away from any help; you might as well give up."

Realizing that Sinubus was much stronger than she, Kat gave in to his demands and stopped struggling against his will, though she kept her senses on guard. He waved his free right hand in the air, revealing a small metal console out of nowhere. After a hand scan, the image of a dimly lit metallic interior was slowly revealed. Once they walked inside, the door slid back down behind them. They were inside the Sirian warship.

Kat gasped at the impressive mechanized masterpiece. The place was dimly lit from the ceiling lights; half the illumination came from the backlights of numerous consoles and monitors in the walls. To their left was the entrance to the numerous control decks. However, Sinubus headed down the corridor to the right with the feline in tow. A few canines strolled by on their way to the control decks; all clad in the gang regalia of a black, sleeveless, unbuttoned vest and black pants. After walking about thirty feet, they stopped as the gang leader did another hand scan to gain entry through the sliding door before him that led into his quarters. The door slammed shut as after they entered.

Kat looked around and took in her surroundings. "Nice place. Not."

"Humph, I glad you like you like it," Sinubus scoffed in reply, releasing his grip on her. Knowing that she was smack in the middle of an enemy stronghold, Kat knew better than to try anything outrageous such as another attack, so she kept her cool and walked around the room.

She looked back at him again. "You look like someone I know."

"What, you mean that blue dog you were with before I took you away?" he asked.

"Yes," said Kat. "You know him?"

"Well, not personally, but we have a lot in common." Sinubus sat on the bed. Kat sat in a chair.

"I can obviously see that. So tell me; why did you bring me here?"

"You obviously have a connection with that dog. If you haven't figured it out already, it's a trap. If I figured correctly, he's probably already plotting to come here and rescue you."

"_That_, I can believe. Why exactly do you want him for? And why didn't you just try to capture him instead, since _he's_ the one you seek?"

"Silly girl. If you thought I would try to kidnap Anubis, you must be crazy. My cover would have been blown immediately, and you were a much easier target."

"Point taken. One more thing, what are you going to do with me? No matter what you say on this one, you're going to regret it."

The red dog let out a laugh. "Yeah, I'm sure! And I didn't say that I was laying a trap for nothing, either." Sinubus stood up and grabbed Kat by the arm, yanking her out of the chair with little resistance. He took her out of the room and continued down the hall.

"Where are you taking me!" Kat yelled.

"I can't have someone like you just wandering around my ship," he sneered in reply. "Otherwise, I would just have to kill you because you'd find out too much. And that would be such a waste."

After about another few minutes of walking, they reached another door on their right. A retina scan later, they were inside a long room lined with vacant cells. "You should be honored," he said. "You're the first one to use of these cells."

"Like I'm really thrilled," Kat muttered, as Sinubus forced her in the first one on the left and locked the door. "You're going to pay for this!"

"Oh, stop your whining, it won't get you anywhere," he growled. With that, he left her inside and entered the corridor. As he walked on his way to the control decks, Sinubus thought about his newest captive:

"_So, she's my first captive from Earth. Not a bad catch. In fact, I kind of find her rather……attractive. So what if she's a feline and I'm a reptilian dog, I couldn't care less about that mismatch. But, what if she rebels? She's already showed resistance throughout our encounter……that might present problems that stack against what I have in mind for her. Even so, I'm sure I'm in store for some excitement from that feline…heh, heh…_"

As Sinubis reached the end of the hall, the doors before him slid open, revealing the control room interior. The reddish-chamber was a massive expanse; five control decks were stacked on top of each other in the back of the room to a total height of 300 feet. The deck on the chamber floor extended out farther from the four upper decks, adjacent two three enormous viewscreens. The largest of these was in the front of the room; two others scaled each side wall. A fourth screen allowed view through the high ceiling. The place was bustling with activity; there were canines on all decks gathering as much information as possible on the planet.

As the gang leader found a place to sit among the numerous consoles of the lower deck, an officer came up to him with some print outs. "Sir," he said, "We have information on the force that we're up against."

Sinubus took the papers as the officer walked to an elevation pad that moved him up to the next deck. "Space Patrol Delta," he said, reading aloud from the sheet. "Hmm………Oh, damn. We're going against ANOTHER police force? I _hate _police…" It wasn't long before he finished reading. He paged the officer who presented the information. "Is this all the info you dogs could get?"

"I'm afraid so, sir," replied the voice. "The majority of their database is heavily encrypted. However, there are some images of the base available for view. I'll post them on the frontal viewscreen."

"Great, a slide show presentation…" grumbled the red dog as the pager clicked off and some images of the Space Patrol Delta base flashed in front of him. "Oh, good grief. That has got to be the……DUMBEST……work of architecture I have _ever_ seen…" He tried to stifle a laugh, but failed as more pictures were displayed. Many other dogs joined him at the sight of the base. "Man, I thought the building was bad enough, but that big dog head on the top is icing on the cake! A moldy, rotten cake, that is…heh, heh…"

After a few more laughs, he looked back at the papers, hoping to find something that he previously missed. Eventually, he did find something. "The leader of this base is………Commander Anubis 'Doggie' Cruger? I guess he finally made something of himself…" Tired of reading, Sinubus tossed the pages behind him. He paged the same officer a second time. "Do we have any images of the base leader?"

"Actually, we have one. Do you want me to post it?" asked the voice. Sinubus just growled into the mic. "Ok, ok, I'll post it, sir!" The comm clicked off, and soon the image of the S.P.D. commander was revealed. The gang leader bolted straight out of his seat as many members gasped at the image. The resemblance between Sinubus and Anubis was striking.

"There he is…" he said, slowly walking toward the viewscreen. "You're _finally_ within my grasp." Sinubus then closed his eyes and began a heat scan of the area, trying to pick up and identify Anubis' heat source. Within minutes, he found it, and opened his eyes. "It seems he hasn't taken the bait, yet. No matter." He walked back to his seat and clicked on the comm, adjusting it to a ship-wide transmission.

"Attention, all personnel. An attack squad is to be assembled immediately. Target: SPACE PATROL DELTA…"


	8. A Doggie's Story: Part I

Chapter 8—A Doggie's Story: Part I

AUTHORS NOTE: After the command center dialogue, narration is by Anubis in the first-person.

* * *

The central command chamber doors opened as the five B-Squad cadets and their commander rushed inside. Anubis was still in his training getup.

"We need to see if we can get a lock on Kat's location. Sky, try to make contact through her communicator," he ordered, looking at a city overlay for any anomalies.

Sky tried to get a lock, but with no success. "Sir, her communications must have been deactivated; I'm not able to get through."

"Dammit, I feared that would happen. Syd, run a scan of the entire city. If there are any energy spikes above the normal level, that might give us a clue.

"I'm on it," she replied, pressing a few buttons on an adjacent console. After a minute or two, the results appeared on the screen. "There's nothing out of the ordinary on the scanner. You think they're under some kind of cloaking device that covers energy as well as image?"

"That's a pretty good bet," he answered. "If that is the case, their technology must be on par with ours. We're up against a formidable opponent. If there was only some way to find out what is going on…"

Bridge, meanwhile, was looking at some satellite images of the region. A shocked look crept across his face as he stared at the display. Jack soon took notice of his reaction. "Bridge, what is it?" he asked.

"I see something weird outside of the city," he replied as the others approached the images. "Where? I don't see it," said Z, scanning the photo. "Here," answered Bridge, pointing to a shape by the coast and north of the city. It was the area of flattened grass where the cloaked Sirian warship was sitting.

"Woah, that must be it," said a surprised Sky. "Well, we've found a possible source, but now what? We still don't know what we're up against."

As the cadets stared at the screens, looking for answers, Anubis, with closed eyes, was doing a search of his own—with his _mind_. Using his water-based abilities, he was mentally scanning the area for life-forms. Since most beings are composed of more than 60 water, Anubis can pick up the element and locate life, even to the point of being to identify individual beings. After hearing about the possible location of the disturbance source from the cadets' conversation, he moved his search to the north.

As he stood by the center console, he couldn't believe what he was sensing. Thousands of Sirians. He cringed with anger as he scanned from being to being, trying to find a sort of leader among them. The cadets soon turned from their search to their commander, wondering why he had been silent for the last several minutes.

"Commander?" asked Syd. "Are you alright?"

He didn't answer; he continued to scan the ship's inhabitants. Seconds later, Anubis made a discovery among the Sirians, causing him to slightly quiver—almost as if he was in pain. He opened his eyes. "I know who is behind this."

"Then who is it?" Jack asked.

Anubis was silent for a few seconds, hesitating to tell and reveal more of his horrible past, but he soon replied, realizing that there could be no secrets between him and those that he trusted. With a few button presses on the console, a security screen appeared and requested a password. The commander typed it in, gaining access to a secret criminal file, one set apart from the rest because Anubis wanted no one to see before this day. The file opened and was displayed above the console in a hologram. The criminal's figure stood in the center as data screens surrounded his image. The criminal was Sinubus Cruger.

The B-squad stepped back out of shock and surprise. Anubis came around the console and stood by it. Except for color, the two looked identical—even the names sounded similar.

"He…he looks just like you!" exclaimed Bridge. "But how!"

"Yeah, is he like your brother or something!" added Syd. "I didn't know you even_ had_ a brother!"

"No, no, I don't have a brother," said Anubis, taking a seat by the center display. "Of course, you guys didn't allow me to finish my story either."

The cadets realized this and sat down around the center console to listen. Sky pressed a button to disable the hologram.

"So, you were saying?" asked Jack.

Anubis nodded. "Let's restart at the beginning…"

* * *

My eyes opened for the very first time. I floated in a liquid-filled chamber, and was covered in electrodes that connected to the lower base. Figures in white coats—Sirian scientists—began to surround me on the outside with looks of anticipation and surprise, for they had realized that I had awakened.

Before I knew what was happening, the fluid began to drain from the container, and the connections to my body were severed. Minutes later, the chamber opened, exposing me to the outside. It was so cold. There I stood—wet and naked.

It was then that I learned why I was created. To be the most ultimate being in the universe. Throughout that day, I underwent countless testing phases to expose my numerous abilities. However, I was not what they had expected. All of my tests resulted in negative results; all of my intended enhancements appeared to be nonexistent. To them, I was useless—a failure. They shook their heads in frustration as I learned what was to become of me. I was to be terminated.

It was in the evening by then; many scientists were calling it a day and leaving the center as I was set back into my chamber. My termination was set for the next morning. One thing was for certain; my life was NOT going to be in the hands of these scientists. Moments after the last of the personnel left the premises, I shattered the chamber walls and ventured into the openness of the lab.

Then came the hard part; the building consisted of a massive network of hallways, creating a labyrinth to escape from. Personnel knew their way around, but I had only been in existence for less than 24 hours. An obvious way out was through the main entrance, but it was too risky. Several hours into the night, I finally found a backdoor leading into an abandoned alley. It was my best chance of concealment, so I took it.

I wasn't free, however. I never was "free" then. I was showered with scorn from the Sirian populace for my appearance so harshly that I stayed in hiding for several years. As if my general impression wasn't enough; my special abilities also developed during this time. Three pairs of wings for flight, gills for underwater transport, and the most striking development—water manipulation. It was then I realized that I had great potential, but I still had no purpose for existing.

Life on the streets was tough, but I learned to adapt. Stealing to survive, standing your ground with violence—those became the norm. I regretted my actions later—I still do—but they were necessary. My opponents were no match to my defensive, but I made sure that I never launched the first attack. If I had done so, I would have likely gotten carried away and killed my opponent.

About a year after my abilities surfaced, the scientists of the initial project got wind of the developments and set out a search. I was only able to evade my captors for so long. Using their advanced technology, I was captured and returned to the research center. More grueling tests followed, including reprimands for escaping. Those weeks were nothing to me but torture. Tests to check my thresholds of pain and fear. Tests to analyze my destructive potential. I couldn't take it anymore.

A couple of weeks into the ordeal, my energy levels began to spike, due to my building anger. My oppressors took notice of the changes and showed signs of excitement in my "progress". I had found out my true purpose in those weeks. The Sirian government wanted to conquer the rest of the planets in the Sirian star system. From there, they would attempt to obliterate all who opposed them and take over neighboring systems in a plot to have complete control. I was to be the start of a massive creation project to do the government's bidding. With their technology at their disposal, nothing could stop them.

Nothing, except me.

What happened next was unbelievable. My body began to glow and spew a blue light and pure energy. My energy levels had reached their maximum, and were breaking that limit. I then ripped myself out of my bonds and shot my extremities outward, creating an energy shockwave that rocked the region. I screamed as I fired blue energy bolts around the chamber, obliterating anything that got in their way. Scientists evacuated in a frenzy of chaos, running for their lives. Fires raced through the wreckage as sections of the building began to collapse. In one final blow, I unleashed all of my rage into a single, massive explosion. Then all went black.

When I woke up, I saw nothing. Nothing but dirt. The ground seemed to rise in all directions, eventually topping off in jagged peaks on the edge of my view. Not yet understanding the magnitude of what just occurred, I opened my wings and flew skyward to get a better look. When I was high enough, I surveyed the surroundings. The "jagged peaks" were actually the edge of a giant crater that was the result of my final attack. At nearly thirty city blocks wide, it not only destroyed the research facility, but several neighborhoods were also obliterated. I quickly flew as far as I could away from the city, to a nearby lake. I plunged underwater as deep as I could go, and wept.

Realizing that the lake provided much more refuge than the city, and that I could perfect my water-manipulating powers with greater ease, I spent several decades in that area. With each passing day, I found new uses for my abilities. However, my social level declined dramatically over the years, evading any contact with all of society at every turn. I became an outcast, and I feared everyone. I had killed thousands in that blast, and I considered myself an enemy to the public. I needed to leave. Not the lake. The planet.

One day, I noticed a large ship landing by the lake. Poking my head above the surface of the water to look, I saw it was a transport ship. Then, an idea came to mind. I went back down and moved along the floor to the edge of the lake closest to the parked ship. After a few minutes, my body liquefied into a puddle of water and flowed out of the lake and onto the sidewalk. More time passed as I maneuvered my molecules up the side of the transport. The tricky part came as I dissolved my being through tiny cracks in the surface. It took some time, but I finally was able to get all of myself into an interior room—thankfully, a storage closet. Rather than re-materialize and risk getting discovered, I continued to lie in the form of a puddle on the floor. I had no idea of the ship's destination, whether it be another place on Sirius, or a different planet. I hoped for the latter.

A long hour or so later, the ship finally took off. I couldn't tell where we were going, since I was stuck in the storage closet, but I could figure that we were rising extremely fast. Then, I felt a strong acceleration. This continued for about twenty to thirty minutes. Suddenly, the ship shook violently; I figured it was either under attack or flying through strong turbulence. Again, I hoped for the latter. We entered freefall as objects in the room began to float. I re-materialized myself before my molecules became scattered in the air. All I remember next was a large crash and being hurled into the air by the force of the explosion before going into unconsciousness.

I slowly came to my senses, but I laid face up in a recovery bed. This was new to me; I never in my life had experienced such a thing. A figure came into focus on my right side. Seeing that I was awake, she promptly introduced herself. Dr. Katherine Manx…


	9. A Doggie's Story: Part II

**Chapter 9—A Doggie's Story: Part II**

Dr. Katherine Manx. A human-feline hybrid, she was the most beautiful being I had ever laid eyes upon. After her introduction, she proceeded to check my physical status. As she did so, my mind was in a flurry of confusion and wonder. Why was I here? In all my life, I had never been cared for, and suddenly I was in a _recovery bed_. On top of that, this woman, who was a total stranger, showed compassion despite my abnormalities. It was all hard for me to comprehend, but eventually my frenzy of feelings faded away, and I finally began to relax with the thought of being cared for at last.

My examination considered, I had only bruises from the crash. Even so, I did stay in recovery for a couple of days as a minor precaution. My mind felt uneasy of the setting at first; the environment I was in reminded me of the laboratory of my creation. The thoughts evoked painful emotions, but Katherine stayed by my side, keeping my sorrow at bay. She seemed fascinated with my appearance to say the least, a strong contrast to the disgust I had received from the Sirian populace. A few hours into the stay, we managed to make conversation. There were so many questions. As I was still quite socially inept at the time, Dr. Manx volunteered to answer mine first.

I was on the planet Novar III of the Novar star system. Katherine—also known as Kat, which I called her from then on—had lived in the capital city of Xenoxia her entire life and was 107 years old at the time. I was surprised at how old she was, but I soon realized that I was thirty-eight years older than she, at 145. Her entire family had been killed by a bomb when she was 54, during a past planetary civil war. She paused, with a sad look on her face. I sympathized with her in the fact that we had similar problems—no families. After a few moments, Kat continued, stating that she had entered the research field many years ago, working at this medical facility. As of late, she had shown interest in general technological research as well.

Kat soon was finished, and it was my turn. She asked me about what species I was. Then it hit me—I didn't know. I couldn't go look it up either; all of my documentation had been destroyed in the explosion over a century ago. Kat didn't understand this, that is, until I told her about my origin. I told her everything—well, not exactly _everything_. In my story, I never mentioned my abilities to her, nor did I reveal any physical anomalies such as wings or gills. Later, I did mention the destruction of the lab, but I passed it off as an accident, not the result of a mindless rage on my part. After getting so far in starting a friendship, I did not wish to risk losing her for something I was.

Forty-eight hours passed by quickly. Though I remained bed-ridden for the duration, Kat and I conversed a lot about various things. Those two nights, I slept better than I ever had before. However, it was my time to be released. After a brief final examination, I was free to go. Too bad I had nowhere to go _to_. It seemed that all good things must come to an end. I began for the exit, but then to my surprise, Kat stopped me not two steps down the hall. Obviously moved from what I had been through, she asked if I would stay with her. I was shocked at the least by her generous offer. I asked her why she was doing this for me. Kat replied, saying that I did not deserve the life that I lived—I deserved more. Gratefully, I accepted.

It was close to the end of her work day at that time, so I stuck around the lobby for a couple of hours. It seemed like a test; here I was, stuck in a situation that I spent my whole life trying to avoid—_being in public_. The contrast couldn't have been worse—a big blue dog stuck in the middle of a room full of human-cats. I'm sure that most of everyone stared at me at some point. However, there was no noise; no remarks or ridicule. Just stares. It seemed that a lot of these people were more scared of me, instead of being angry I exist. For some reason, I somehow understood that fear.

Soon, Kat walked in and motioned for me to follow her outside, thus relieving me of the awful wait. Through those double doors of the hospital I saw the true existence of the planet Novar III. It was amazing to behold—so little development and so much nature. From what Kat had said earlier, we were in the planet's capital city, but even it seemed like just a small community. Nonetheless, their technology was on par and even surpassed that of the Sirians. Perhaps it was their lack of the expansionist attitude that allowed them to focus more on their research. I followed Kat to her hovercar parked in front; parallel to the street. Within minutes, the vehicle was airborne, and we were off to Kat's place.

She didn't live very far away from her job; the ride had only lasted about ten minutes when we pulled into the drive. Her home wasn't much different from the rest of the dwellings in the city—small and simple. Walking inside, I saw much of the same setting—a few carpeted rooms with assorted furniture. From what I saw, I could tell that Kat was a sort of perfectionist. Everything in the house had its place; everything was immaculate. I commented on the size of the place. Kat answered, saying that it was more than enough for her, since she lived there by herself. From the expression in her voice, I knew that she wanted me to stay for another reason as well. She was lonely, too.

After a quick tour of the modest home, Kat prepared dinner for us. It was like my life had restarted; firsts had occurred the entire day, including the good meal. Afterwards, I was shown where I would sleep. The couch in the living room unfolded into a bed. That night, I had laid myself down to rest for my first of many nights in her residence, when she surprisingly kissed me good-night on my cheek before going to her own room. I suspected something more was coming out of this new-found companionship, but I had never felt a feeling like this before. My thoughts revolved around the new idea as I dozed off.

The years to follow would become the best years of our lives. As each day passed, our relationship grew stronger. Kat had provided everything I needed to thrive—food, clothes, a roof over my head—and I was very grateful for that. However, the unknown feelings I had from day one with her continued to linger inside me, so the time came for me to reveal to Kat how I felt. As I did so one day, her face began to brighten with a sense of joyous realization. Kat brought to my attention that she had been feeling the same way about me—we were feeling _love_. I had heard of the term before, but I never received, nor experienced it until I met her. In Kat's case, she had love before, when her family was still alive, so it was a feeling that we both were missing, but was found when we found each other. From that moment on, we held a new appreciation of each other's feelings.

Later, on another day, Kat needed to go to work, so I tagged along as we went into town. On days like this, she would work in the hospital for around eight to ten hours, allowing me plenty of free time, since I was literally "unemployed." Of course, staying in a waiting room and standing out like a sore thumb for half the day isn't that much fun, so I would usually roam around the capital for as long as Kat worked, then meet her back at the lobby at a specified time before the ride home. My favorite place to go was the public library, located a few blocks down the street, so I headed there first. Many Novarians passed by along the way, but it wasn't a problem by then. Being at least five years since I landed, the populace was used to seeing me around, for I was a common occurrence.

The library had to be the largest building on the planet. Since the Novarians are primarily focused on technological advance, rather than territorial expansion, it seemed fitting for them to have countless records of their research, as well as many other types of documents. One of such sections the library contained was an area for historical periodicals—a fancy name for out-of-date newspapers, magazines, etc. I went there first and flipped through the papers for a random date, then pulled one out to read.

When I sat down at a nearby table, a picture on the front page caught my attention. The shot was taken on Sirius, and a large red explosion of energy nearly filled the frame. It immediately reminded me of what I had done many years ago, but that was a _blue_ explosion. This one was _red_. I read through the accompanying article to see if I could find its cause, but there was no explanation. It did, however, refer to a prior explosion at the same location. Given the timeframe of the paper, I had no doubt that the prior explosion was the result of my rage, but I couldn't put my finger on what this one was. My only conclusion was that the lab was rebuilt, the scientist made a second attempt at creation, and then eventually the creation turned against them, just as I had. After reading the article for a few more minutes, I made on last glance at the picture, and then went to put the paper away. As I usually did, I spent several hours in the library, reading. However, I had much less focus, for my mind continued to dwell on the second explosion.

It was going on noon when I finished my dose of reading for the day. I put my books away and headed for the exit. Clouds had moved into the region throughout the morning, and the downpour had just started. Since Kat wasn't around, I had decided to use my water-bending powers to an extent by covering myself with an invisible aqua-shield to provide a rain defensive. Of course, after I had gotten in the rain, the shield wasn't very invisible anymore; rain set on and ran downwards in the shape of a half-sphere hovering over my head.

I had only gone a few blocks when a low-flying aircraft of unidentifiable class soared overhead. Seconds later, an explosion followed, and many Novarians came running in my direction, screaming and trying to escape the blast radius. My first instinct was to stay away, but my curiosity overshadowed the thought, and I approached the fallen craft that burned about a half-mile away.

The ship was completely engulfed in flames by the time I reached it. Fuel squirted out of several places in the hull and spilled into large puddles into the street that eventually became ablaze. I kept my distance from the inferno and watched as a moderately-sized fireball launched from the melting hull and soared high into the air before coming down another half a mile or so away, in between several buildings. But, instead of the expected explosion, there was no noise or sound of a booming impact whatsoever. I sensed that there had to be something more to this than met the eye, so I went and look for where it might had landed.

The search led me down another street, then into an alley. After spending the next several minutes traveling through several passageways, I unexpectedly collided into someone as we rounded the same corner. The impact was strong enough to knock us both backwards onto the ground. My intent was to regain my bearings, apologize, and go on my way, but that changed once I saw who he was.

Red scales, white underside, and a structural build with an exact resemblance to mine—I could not believe what I was seeing. Apparently he couldn't either, for he seemed to be in equal shock. In an instant, I thought back to the article from the library. A red explosion—and now a red dog? At that point, there was no mistaking it. He _had_ to have come from the same research facility as I. We cautiously eyed each other over for what seemed to be an eternity, not speaking a word. The red dog wore black pants, chains, and more spiked accessories than anyone could shake a stick at. From what he wore, we seemed to share the same bleak background, but there also seemed to be a difference in the feeling. He looked as if he _liked_ how he was, in contrast to me wanting to escape the darkness.

Wanting to finally break the ice, I introduced myself to him. He seemed quite surprised by the name, and gave me his own introduction with a like, but darker-sounding voice. His name was Sinubus Cruger. No wonder he was surprised—same last names. A short, but thorough followed. My suspicions were confirmed; he indeed was the scientists' second attempt, an attempt made successful nearly twenty years after my own creation. However, his rebellion began in an instant as he destroyed the lab immediately after. Sinubus admitted to having an addiction to the power he possessed. His power was fire; that explained the fireball. This craving for power, I was told, not only came from his genetic structure, but also from the influence his abilities imposed on others. Oppressing those around him was his passion; he lived for inflicting pain and suffering wherever he went. From that, I knew that he was quite the twisted individual, and I feared that he may possibly have wanted to spread his poison over this planet, as well as myself. I set myself into a cautious defensive. Associating with such a figure could put me in jeopardy. Sinubus took notice of this and mocked my fear. This continued to the point where I had had enough of his insolence and turned to walk away. I wanted nothing to do with his evil ways.

However, he wouldn't let me leave without a fight, as he socked me in the back of the head, causing me to fall. Sinubus continued to hurl insults as I slowly got to my feet. If it was a fight he wanted, he was going to get it. Hearing him approach for a second attack, I turned and countered with a fist to his face. He stumbled backwards and slammed against a wall. Sinubus recovered quickly from the attack and came at me again. I tried to counter once more, but his approach was much quicker than the last, and he tackled me to the ground. Obviously upset that I landed a solid hit on him, he grabbed my neck and tried to choke me. The gagging ensued for half a minute or so before I finally was able to break his grip, immediately after, I kneed Sinubus in the gut, causing him to roll off, then got on top of him and landed a couple more attacks.

The fight consistently got more and more violent with each passing minute; blood was shed early on by the both of us. We stayed on the ground for a good while, trying to keep each other pinned and immobile. I was holding my own, but Sinubus was slowly gaining the upper hand. He threw me to my feet, pinned me to a wall, and unleashed a hellish fury of attacks. Since it was likely that he fought like this throughout his existence, he clearly was more skillful than I; every defensive I attempted to put up he broke through. Nonetheless, my insides were filling with rage against him with every blow. Then suddenly, I snapped.

Between his attacks, I instantly lunged forward and knocked Sinubus down. I then pinned him to the ground and began beating the life out of him. At that point, all I wanted to do was destroy him for what he had done to me. His blood flew as I landed attack after attack. The chaos had continued for over three minutes before he unexpectedly burst into flame and shot up into the air, leaving a long trail of smoke in its wake. As I looked up, another ship flew overhead. This ship was massive in size compared to the one that had crashed nearly an hour before. A ventral hatch on the vessel opened, and the fireball of Sinubus flew inside; moments later, the ship accelerated and disappeared from view.

There I stood in the alley—victorious, but bloody. I tried to walk out, but instead collapsed to the ground, weak from the battle. Rain continued to fall as I lay. A new thought came to settle as I slowly lost consciousness:

"Today, I've met my enemy. My enemy is Sinubus…"


	10. A Doggie's Story: Part III

**Chapter 10—A Doggie's Story: Part III**

As my eyes opened, I could tell that I was back in the hospital. Once again, I was under the care of Dr. Manx, as she stood by my bedside. I knew that she would have her share of questions about the incident, and I thought to myself on how I would answer them. Passing the injuries off as a direct result of the crash seemed like a good plan, but my wounds would tell otherwise; I didn't sustain any burns, just several cuts and bruises from attack impact. The questions would have to wait, though, for I needed time to recover.

My stay in critical care was short; I was moved to a regular recovery room the same day. On the third day of my stay, Kat and I finally hand a chance to talk. As I expected, she wanted to know what happened. After thinking about what I should say, I concluded that anything said about the fight wouldn't do any harm to our relationship, so I explained the sequence of events leading up to the confrontation, including the scuffle itself. After finishing, Kat was speechless at the reality of an evil version of me running loose in the galaxy. She was also amazed that I was able to fight and defeat him. I was amazed, myself; it had been many years since I last had to defend myself from an enemy.

Dr. Manx then told me about significant changes in the region. Apparently, Sinubus was only a part of something bigger than I expected—the leader of a group of rebels whose purpose was to terrorize and strip planets of their resources to fulfill their own greedy desires. That wasn't all, though; other dark, independent efforts were also taking place in the Novar and other neighboring systems. The quadrant, which had seen peaceful times for so long, was slowly finding itself under attack. Sure, the planets had police forces to help defend against the onslaught of crime, but it wasn't near enough.

It was then that she told me about a new force—Space Patrol Delta. Ironically, I found out that this anti-crime effort had started on Sirius of all places around the time of my escape from the planet. Started by a source separate from the corrupt Sirian government, S.P.D. had become known for its positive impact on the younger generation, as well as its technological advances in criminal justice. We heard that the academy on Sirius had gained knowledge of the attacks that were occurring and had announced the first extensions of their program. Within months of the proposal, several Space Patrol Delta bases were to be set up on many planets in the quadrant, including one in Xenoxia on Novar III. Though the facilities wouldn't be completed for a while, sign-ups were already going underway at the planet's capital building.

Kat stated her intentions to sign-up, and encouraged me to do the same. I was reluctant at first; I didn't want to cross paths with any more evil-doers than I already had. On the flip side, I would finally have a real purpose in living. The strength that I wielded could be used to S.P.D.'s advantage in the fight against crime. So, I agreed to join, but I also asked Kat about why she would quit something she had lived to do for so long and just sign up for what was then just an incomplete idea. She said that while her job in the hospital was rewarding for the fact that she was helping others and earning good pay, she needed a change of pace. From my standpoint, she didn't seem like the type that would yearn to live the adventurous life, but I simply nodded my head in acknowledgement. I guessed that only time would tell if she could make it in that life or not.

In another four days, I was released from the hospital. When Kat was finished with her day's share of work, we loaded into her car and hovered down the street to the capital building. Inside the sizeable structure, a S.P.D. display was set up opposite of the door, accompanied by a long sheet of paper with a list. Apparently, the proposal was getting an extremely positive response from the people of Novar III; there were hundreds of names listed already. The display provided information about the academy's purpose, and other statistics of its operation. Also included was a summary of the new base to be placed on our planet. We surprised when we saw its location on the map shown—right next to Kat's house. After signing the list, we headed home.

Back at Kat's place, we looked around for the site of construction. Well, it wasn't _right_ next to the house, but still within walking distance to the east. The area had just been cleared; there was no construction of the facility yet. Inside, we had dinner and enjoyed some leisure time before heading for bed.

As I slept that night, horrible images entered my head. They were flashbacks of my life on Sirius coming back to haunt me. The more I tried to fight them, the harder they came. The images consistently escalated in intensity as they changed from the streets of the city to the lab of my creation. The tests, the torture; it was too much. I found myself squirming and howling as I continued to try to fight the nightmare.

It wasn't long before Sinubus entered by dreams. A new scenario formed; I was chained to a wall of a dark, metal, blood-stained room. My body was stripped of clothes, and Sinubus stood before me with a large shock whip and a sadistic expression on his face. Before I could react, he beat me with the whip, burning my skin and shedding blood with every hit. I screamed in pain as the damage accumulated, and Sinubus glowed and laughed with delight, taking sick pleasure from my slow demise. The torture session in my mind continued on until the bastard tossed the whip aside and reached for a large dagger. He looked at it and grinned in anticipation of what he was about to do with the blade. Sinubus took the dagger and held it in his fist, the blade pointing at my head. Then without warning, he lunged forward, attempting to plunge the dagger into my face. I screamed louder than ever as the tip raced for my eyes. Finally, as I was about to die, the dreamscape shattered. There stood Kat in her nightgown. It was over.

I could tell that she knew I had a nightmare, but when she inquired about what occurred in my dreams, I couldn't answer her. I was too traumatized from the whole experience to really comprehend anything. As I cried, I could feel Kat sit down on the bed and put a consoling hand on my bare shoulder. It took some time, but I gradually calmed down. When I faced Kat again, she told me that I didn't have to worry. That I wasn't alone anymore—we had each other. After several minutes of embracing, Kat and I fell back asleep together in the living room. She stayed in bed with me for the rest of the night.

The months seemed to fly by in anticipation of the S.P.D. base's completion, and before we knew it, the building and grounds were complete. Practically all of Xenoxia attended the opening ceremonies, including the many who had signed up to serve. That same day, the new cadets were introduced to their superiors—established S.P.D. officers from Sirius—and assigned uniforms, living quarters, and squad teams. As we had figured, Kat and I weren't training in the same squad. I knew that I had gotten a little more than I had bargained for when I met the Sirian officers, but there was no way I was going to succeed in Space Patrol Delta if I hated my superiors. However, to my surprise, I got along with them quite well in the several years to follow.

While I moved up in the ranks as a cadet, Kat, after a few years of combat field action, decided that her place was in the lab. In her fourth year at S.P.D., she changed tracks and began her current career in technological research. I had a feeling she would; Kat told me that if she had continued in the field, all of her prior education would have been for nothing, and she didn't want a sizeable amount of her life to be a waste. In that respect, I agreed with her reasoning, though I still think of her as quite a good fighter for what she learned.

With the training I had received, the fighting techniques I mastered in combination with my physical strength turned me into quite the formidable officer. Even so, I continued to hide my special abilities. I became quite an asset to the academy in combating evil forces, though those forces were considerably slimmer than we expected. No one had heard or seen any sign of Sinubus since his arrival months before the S.P.D. base in Xenoxia was founded—a fact in which I found a sense of relief. Nonetheless, there was word of a new evil in sight that greatly outclassed what we as an academy had faced thus far. The Troobian Empire of a distant system, ruled by the evil Emperor Gruumm, was spotted in our quadrant. His tactics was similar to that of Sinubus'—pass from planet to planet and sap each one of its resources—but the Troobians obliterated the remains when they were finished, and they had done so to nearly a hundred planets.

By then, the academy had been in existence for fifteen years. Kat had advanced through her scientific career with incredible progress. After all of my hard work with S.P.D., I was finally promoted to Commander. Little did I know that soon was to become the beginning of the end for Novar III. Just after I had received my promotion in a formal award ceremony at the academy, multiple explosions shook the premises. As we went to battle-stations, a green Troobian warship loomed overhead, firing volley after volley of laser fire. All squads were deployed to fight the floating monstrosity, and soon, the vessel's lasers were disabled as a result of our counterattacks.

It wasn't over yet; thousands of robotic foot soldiers called Krybots were unleashed from the ship into the city. They approached our defensive from all sides, firing their own waves of lasers from their weaponized arms. My comrades and I mowed the front lines down in quick defense, but the offenders continued to multiply, and we were quickly overpowered. I continued to fight despite the odds as the base crumbled behind me. Not long after, the warship's secondary lasers came online and continued the aerial assault on the city. Cadets died all around me as all firepower from the combined Krybot forces were locked onto the premises. Eventually, I was overtaken by Krybots myself and was knocked out.

When I came to, I stumbled to my feet, feeling the pain of bloody laser wounds that would have killed any Novarian. Everything I could see was completely destroyed; everyone I had gotten to know in those twenty years on the planet was dead. I had failed. I collapsed on the rubble of what was the S.P.D. base and wept in defeat. However, I heard faint noises coming from beneath the concrete slab I laid upon. Hoping it was from a survivor, I quickly shoved the slab to the side. It was Kat. She was weak, but still conscious, and a mound of debris covered her from the waist down. I wasted no time in digging her our of the mess, and she soon was freed. Kat cried in agony as I tended to her wounds, ripping parts of my own uniform off to use as bandages.

Suddenly, there was a rumbling sound coming from the north. The Troobian warship appeared again on the horizon and flew overhead from the same direction it came on its first appearance. Apparently, it had circled the planet after destroying Xenoxia to continue the plunder of resources and was then completing its circuit. The ship then stopped over us and a figure descended down a green column of light from the bow of the vessel. Emperor Gruumm himself landed in front of us, readying his energy staff. I picked a sword up off the ground and prepared to duel. I was _not_ going to lose again.

Gruumm charged forward with his staff, firing several energy bolts in my direction as he approached. Some of them completely missed, a few more I was able to dodge, and the rest were deflected back at the emperor with my weapon. He kept coming and bounced my counterattack back with his staff. The bolts continued to deflect back and forth until our weapons collided, releasing the energy in a large explosion and accompanying shockwave. We fought for several minutes, blocking each other's slashes and stabs as Kat looked on from nearby, still visibly in pain.

Soon, Gruumm was finally able to land a strong attack, knocking me down and backwards and causing me to lose my grip on the sword. I heard Kat scream as he vaporized the fallen blade with energy from his staff. Gruumm heard her as well and fired an energy bolt at her next, knocking her out. I yelled, fearing she was dead as the emperor prepared to make a death strike on my downed body. My comrades were killed, my life was destroyed, and the love of my life was gone, all by Gruumm. He was going to pay.

With everything I had lost, the amount was replaced with a powerful rage—the third such occurrence in my life. If I was going to die on this now volatile planet, I was going to take all of my oppressors with me. Gruumm plunged his staff downward toward my chest. Right before it struck, however, I reached up and grabbed the end, then jerked it out of his hands by swinging him and the staff back over my head. He let go and flew a good distance before crashing into the ground. When I rose to my feet with the emperor's weapon, he ran towards me in an attempt to retrieve it. He wouldn't get his wish; I snapped his staff in half on my knee and tossed the newly-malfunctioning device aside.

Furious that I broke his favorite toy, Gruumm had several metal capsules materialize around him. They exploded into hundreds of Krybots, all armed and ready to attack. My rage then reached its max; I screamed as pure destructive energy spewed forth from my body, destroying anything that it touched. The Krybots fired several volleys of lasers, but my energy overpowered all of their projectiles. In addition to the chaos already ensuing, my mindless body physically tore through any Krybot that was foolish enough to come near in my time of rampage. Despite my power, the machines continued to come, and I continued to destroy them. I didn't stop until every last one of them was terminated.

Many piles of broken robotics were strewn about the battlefield as Emperor Gruumm stood in shock ahead of me. As I panted for breath, I located a part of his staff on the ground and picked it up. Then I returned it to him—by launching it towards his skull-like head as hard as I could, that is. The blade flew by his skull and sliced off his right horn, making him suddenly cringe and scream in agony. Finally, I readied another blast of energy to finish him off for good, but he showed signs of cowardice and teleported above, back to his hovering warship. Within seconds of departing the surface, the ship zoomed across the sky and rose through the atmosphere. The Troobians had fled.

Though the evil was gone, the danger wasn't over just yet. Massive explosions erupted everywhere as fissures opened in the planet's surface. Seismic activity was off the charts as the ground shook continuously. The attacks of the Troobian Empire were strong and numerous enough to disrupt the planet's natural rotation, thus causing it to fall apart. Barely strong enough to stay conscious, I stumbled to where Kat lay and fell on my knees. I just knew that we both die together in that place, but as I wept, her body began to move. The energy shock hadn't killed as I thought it did, but rather rendered her temporarily unconscious. Seeing her still alive eased my pain a bit, but it couldn't change what I thought our fate was going to be. However, just as all hope was lost, I noticed a ship only a few yards away. It had sustained some damage, but still looked intact enough to fly. A glimmer of hope began to shine again. We were going for it.

I lifted Kat and moved as quickly as possible for the craft, jumping over widening cracks in the ground along the way. Thankfully, it was a transport-class, so we would have plenty of room to recover on the trip. I carried her up the ramp and slammed the door shut. The vessel composed of a large room for passengers in the back, then a small corridor leading to the cockpit in front with storage and lavatories on both sides of the hall. We moved through the corridor to the controls and Kat was set in the co-pilots seat as I took my place in the pilot's chair and activated the engines and g-diffusion systems. Within minutes, we were in the air and shooting through the electrified atmosphere as fast as the ship could fly. Not long after, space could be seen, signaling that the first phase of our escape was a success.

We continued to fly at maximum velocity, though we had no destination. We then looked back at Novar III. At that moment, the planet detonated and sent massive fragments of rock and magma spiraling erratically in all directions. A series of enormous shockwaves followed; I knew our only chance to make it was by activating the hyperdrive, for any one of those shockwaves would completely obliterate the ship, and our maximum speed wasn't fast enough to outrun it. Without hesitation, I revved up the engines and the ship bolted forward at light speed.

For the next several hours, we tended to our wounds and mourned our losses as the computer piloted the transport. We had lost everything. We had each other before, but then it was all we had left. I had thought that we had reached the end, only to find that our road continued on despite all odds. Later, I cut the hyperdrive, and we slowed down to a medium speed. Far from our former home, a blue planet loomed ahead. Upon scanning the atmosphere and life-forms, it was a very livable planet, so Kat and I agreed to start our lives again here—on planet Earth.


	11. A Doggie's Story: Part IV

**Chapter 11—A Doggie's Story: Part IV**

The sky began to brighten as our craft descended into the Earth's atmosphere. It was a shaky descent; after all, the ship did have some damage, but it wasn't near enough to allow for the loss of control. We strapped ourselves in and prepared to land as our altitude put us below the clouds. I then piloted the transport parallel to the surface until a suitable place to land was found. The acceleration was cut once our destination was reached, and a final, slow drop was made before touch down. After shutting the ship down, we unbuckled ourselves and walked out into the sunlight.

Our landing site was stone quarry cut into the side of a cliff. The high altitude gave a tremendous view of the surroundings; the cliff was surrounded by forest and a city sat far to the west, bordering a vast ocean that stretched to the horizon. As we walked out to survey the landscape, the ship suddenly detonated behind us, knocking us to the ground on the edge of a high drop-off. I slowly got to my feet and helped Kat to hers as the totaled transport burned. Then, two figures appeared from behind the inferno. One was clad from head to toe in black armor, and the other was a female in a black, skin-tight outfit.

We took an immediate defense; all signs were showing that these guys were up to no good. They revealed themselves to be Zeltrax and Elsa, servants of one they called Lord Mesogog. The introductions were brief; they charged toward us with their swords. We were at a severe disadvantage as we prepared to fight once again; Kat and I were both spent from the last battle, and we had no weapons. So, in short, it was nothing more than a dodging match as we tried to keep from sustaining further injury. After several minutes, we were able to land some hits, but it only made them angrier, causing them to attack more ferociously. We kept up the fight as long as we could hold out, but they took advantage of their upper hand and knocked us down with energy from their weapons.

However, when all seemed to be lost, a series of explosions rocked the quarry and swept our enemies off their feet. The cause came from the other side of the cliff—five figures in different colored suits and helmets. Zeltrax and Elsa seemed to recognize them and prepared to fight as the figures raced forward, wielding various weapons. Then, from nowhere, several green portals opened, and many armored lizards leaped forth. We didn't grasp what was going on at the time, so Kat and I found a hiding place behind a nearby boulder as the fight escalated. The red, blue, yellow, black, and white figures fought the lizards with brilliant moves and great power. In no time, the reptiles were defeated, and all that was left was Zeltrax and Elsa. The opponents weren't giving up, and they charged again, but the others were determined to put an end to things and they combined weapons into a single super-weapon, then fired from it a massive bolt of energy that easily defeated them both. Another green portal opened and the enemies escaped inside as it closed behind them.

The victors briefly celebrated their victory then came to our position as we emerged. They acted surprised by our appearance; apparently, there wasn't much in the way of "alien" life on this planet either at the time. Then after a little deliberation amongst themselves, they "powered down", thus returning to their original forms—humans. After we introduced ourselves and thanked them for saving us, they told us who they were. They were the Dino Thunder Power Rangers. Conner McKnight—red ranger; Ethan James—blue ranger; Kira Ford—yellow ranger; Dr. Tommy Oliver—black ranger; and Trent Fernandez—white ranger. The rangers offered to let us come with them to their base near the city of Reefside.

It was there that we learned the whole story of what was going on. We had landed in Reefside, California of the United States. An evil saurian tyrant named Mesogog was attempting to take over the planet and turn all of its inhabitants into dinosaurs. The five had come across the Dino Gems, stones of great prehistoric power that allowed them to morph into the Power Rangers—the heroes that could defeat Mesogog and his minions. However—other than themselves, of course—Kat and I were the only other people to know that they were rangers. Before the S.P.D. incarnation of the Power Rangers, the versions of Dino Thunder and earlier had ranger powers as "secret" identities. Two main reasons for this were to avoid attention from the media, and to keep others out of the danger posed by their adversaries.

After they briefed us on the situation, we were allowed to stay inside the base for as long as we needed. Other than the enemies the Power Rangers faced, Kat and I were the first ones of the "alien movement" that was to follow in the years to come, and the humans of Earth hadn't quite embraced the idea of other-worldly visitors then. As soon as they were done speaking, Kat brought something to my attention. She wondered if the power contained in the Dino Gems could used to create another incarnation of the team to use to Space Patrol Delta's advantage in the future. I thought it was certainly possible to do so, but I also knew it was going to be probably the largest undertaking of her career. Challenge aside, she could do it. And so, the idea of Power Rangers S.P.D. was born.

For all the evil that existed in the cosmos, I found it relieving that there were equally nice people around that made the balance. In their spare time between home and school at Reefside High, Kira and some of her friends from campus took Kat out shopping at the local mall downtown; Connor, Ethan, Trent, and Dr. Oliver did the same with me—primarily for clothes. Their hospitality ensued for several months, despite being stretched thin between fighting evil and living normal lives. I hated that they were going through so much to help us, but it was a choice the rangers were willing to make. However, they would be paid back soon enough.

It had been about six months since our arrival on Earth; we had been living in the rangers' base for the duration. Throughout our stay, Kat had set up her own little "lab" to do her research on the power within the Dino Gems. The others helped as much as they could, including myself, though the "real" helpers were Dr. Oliver—a high school science teacher, and Ethan—a techno whiz. The day was a pretty normal day for us; Kat, Tommy, Ethan and I were at the base doing research, and the others were out doing other things. Suddenly, the rangers got an alert of danger on the coastline outside of the city. They contacted the others to meet them there and immediately left, themselves. Kat and I followed.

Not much later, we arrived on the scene; Zeltrax and Elsa were at it again, and many Tyranodrones accompanied their presence. The rangers morphed as we hid nearby and watched them fight. There seemed to be many more T-drones this time than in the first incident we had with them, and they were ferocious as ever as they charged for the rangers. A hand-to-hand melee ensued, and the T-drones outnumbered the rangers by a ratio of nearly 10 to 1, but that didn't stop our heroes from plowing through the enemies. Finally, the large squad was defeated after a chaotic fifteen minutes; however, Zeltrax and Elsa still remained, and the rangers were running low on adrenaline.

After little talk, the second phase of the battle began, but the good side was downed by the opposing power in less than sixty seconds. With little power left to sustain their forms, Connor and his team were forced out of ranger form as they lay on the ground defeated. As we watched, we faced a choice—either go out and fight, or let the city be destroyed. Kat and I were due a rematch with them eventually, so we agreed to fight. We emerged from our nearby hiding place and confronted the enemies as the others looked on in the background.

I took on Zeltrax as Kat fought Elsa. I was able to get some quick blows in to start, but they did little to stop the cyborg as he attacked with his sword. I sidestepped the attack and took the offensive again, but once more, his armor was too tough. Zeltrax must have loved his sword; he continued the fight with a succession of swipes with the blade. It was a good thing he wasn't very accurate with it, though. Either that, or I was too fast for him.

Not long into the fight, I noticed Elsa deliver a gigantic energy swipe at Kat, knocking her backwards and slamming her hard against a rock face. She soon fell face first into the sand, unresponsive as blood oozed from a wound on the back of her head. Elsa then came my direction as Zeltrax caught me off guard and connected with a swipe across my chest that knocked me down. As I held my chest in pain, my hand came back red with blood when I released. It wasn't a deep injury, but it still was painful. Still, I managed to get back on my feet as the enemies approached once more, weapons drawn. It was then that I realized that Kat wasn't awake to see, so it was decided to use my powers to my advantage.

My shirt was pretty much torn in half, so I took it off to enable myself to release more energy. I then ran my hand across the length of the cut, causing the water in my body to speed up exponentially in that region, which in turn greatly sped up the healing process. The cut glowed with energy, and in seconds, it had healed. Zeltrax and Elsa seemed a bit stunned by my power, but soon snapped out of their awe and charged with their swords. Just as they were about to strike, I forced both of my hand forward, shooting out streams of water that wrapped themselves around the blades, holding them in place. My opponents struggled as hard as they could to retrieve their weapons, but I simple jerked them out of their hands and reeled the streams of water backward until I gripped the swords in my hands.

Though beating them was my priority, I still liked a fair fight. While gripping the handles, I forced water barriers through my fists that covered each blade, then spun the barrier so the water would run extremely fast over the blades. Within seconds, the metal of the blades began rusting from the water. After just a couple of minutes, both blades were completely brown with rust, and I relinquished the shields. The swords disintegrated through my hands and fell on the ground in piles of rust on the beach. Now we were even.

I hoped that they would take a hint and flee, but they did the opposite; Zeltrax ran at me first, despite what he had seen. I did nothing as he charged, except extend my hand and fire another stream of water. The stream hit him and spread out along the surface of his body until it completely surrounded him in a liquid barrier. Like the sword trick, the water flowed at horrendous speeds, causing his armor to rust, and causing him extreme pain. After his share of agony, I took the barrier away, and he fell to the ground screaming. I turned to Elsa next as she charged, angry as ever. I did another water move on her, though it was unlike the previous ones I had used.

I forced a hand out at her, but nothing happened immediately. Even so, she stopped in her tracks, realizing that Zeltrax's fate might soon become her own. As I increased my focus, Elsa tried to flee, but she didn't get far before tiring out. While she panted for breath, sweat began to pour from her body—not because she was hot, but rather the fact that I was really taking her water supply away from her. Elsa's sweat slowly floated through the air and congregated into a growing, levitating ball of water in my outstretched hand. The enemy soon collapsed on her hands and knees, thirsty as ever while her skin grew wrinkled and pale. I let her suffering continue for as long as possible before death starting setting in, then I fired the large sphere of liquid back at Elsa. It slammed and merged into her body, replenishing her water supply and knocking her backwards into the surf. Zeltrax rushed to her aid, though he had sustained the same extent of damage, and they teleported away in a green flash of light.

Thankfully, the rangers had went to aid Kat before I was finished, and I rushed to join them. She had not awakened yet, and her head was still bleeding, so wasted no time in locating the injury under her hair. I then placed a hand on it and healed the wound using the same method I had done on my chest. As I did so, the others asked me about the powers I had used during the previous fight. It was their first time to see my abilities, and it would also be their last; I wanted as few people to know as possible. Even at twenty-one years in mine and Kat's relationship, I still was afraid to tell her about my true self. Few details and a request to not tell her anything about this was all I told them about it, and they agreed. Kat eventually woke, and we carefully transported her back to the rangers' base.

Since then, a few months had passed, and the school year at Reefside High was nearly over before we knew it. It was also then that we got some exciting news from the city of Newtech; a new S.P.D. academy was to be built there. However, from what we heard, things were getting off to a really slow start. Construction hadn't started, there were hardly any sign-ups to speak of, and every leadership position was open for the taking. Finally, I had found the opportunity to carry out my role as an S.P.D. commander, and Dr. Manx could further her quest in the field of technological advance. We didn't leave immediately, however; Dino Thunder finally defeated Mesogog and his minions, and we attended the high school's 2004 graduation exercises during that time. Once all was said and done, it was time for us to leave. We asked if any of them would like to come with us, but they declined, for they had careers to chase. Instead, they presented us with the five Dino Gems. The gems had been completely exhausted after the final battle against Mesogog, and the rangers wanted us to keep them to enhance our research at S.P.D. and form a new generation of Power Rangers to defend the Earth from evil on future risings. We took the gems and thanked them for their hospitality. After gathering our belongings, we said our good-byes and began to head out. Tommy offered us a ride in his vehicle; Newtech City is nearly twenty miles to the north of Reefside.

The whole city looked like a huge construction site when the three of us arrived. As said in the name, it was a brand new settlement ten years ago; even to this day, the construction continues as the city grows. It took quite a bit of searching and detours to find the place among the similar-looking building sites, but we finally located a large S.P.D. sign standing in front of a massive clearing of dirt that extended all the way to the Pacific. Tommy parked the car alongside the road, and we all unloaded to check the place out. There were a number of people meeting nearby and surveying the landscape, all clad in S.P.D. uniforms, so a visit to them was priority one.

It tuned out that the group consisted of a mix of humans and aliens, all officers of neighboring bases. Apparently, Space Patrol Delta had grown very significantly in the past sixteen years since the completion of the former Novar III academy; Earth was the 82nd planet to have an S.P.D. base constructed. Though we didn't have uniforms, Kat and I showed them our ID's—I, a commander, and Dr. Manx, a chief scientist. When asked about what base we were from, I told them of the base on Kat's planet and the cause of its demise. Though I hated to admit that our forces were defeated, no harsh words came as a result—only condolences. They knew how enormous of a threat Gruumm was. When we explained about how we came here to live on Earth, the officers gave added interest, probably because of the chance to have the top leadership position filled, which would in turn increase recruitment. Of course, that was our intent, and that's the beginning of our current ten-year career here. Tommy informed us that he had to go back to Reefside, but also informed us that he would be interested in helping S.P.D. during the summer after the base's completion. We accepted his offer before going to unload our gear from his car, and then we waved good-bye as he drove back south.

Signups were still slow, but I made sure that construction began immediately on the premises. My philosophy was that more people would join once the building was near completion, since it would be proven to the world that this idea was destined to become a reality. As construction progressed, Kat and I stayed in a temporary trailer set up for us on the site; we really couldn't afford to live anywhere else.

Then, one year later, the base was completed. As I expected, many more cadets jointed the roster during the latter phases of construction. We received our current uniforms that day and moved out of the trailer to live in our new home. Keeping to his word, Dr. Oliver did come to S.P.D. the following summer and for several seasons to come. He helped teach martial arts and also assisted Dr. Manx in research, as well as teaching classes on basic science. Three years into operation, research of the Dino Gems wrapped up, and the first morphers were created, thus forming the first squad of S.P.D. Power Rangers. To our surprise, Ethan James joined the ranks near the end of the following year, putting great force behind our research program. He stayed with us for several years, but then moved on to bigger things; he now works with NASA. Dr. Oliver, as far as I know, has advanced in teaching and is now a professor at a university in Los Angeles. As for the others, Kira is singing in the music industry, Connor is on the U.S.A. soccer team for the World Cup, and Trent has moved on to become quite the artist. Despite being wrapped up in their careers, we all still manage to keep in touch to this day.

And so, as a commander, I had finally found my purpose for living. However, in these years, that very purpose has seemed to overshadow the reason I am here in the first place. Had it not been for Kat, I'd still be living in seemingly eternal isolation. We were so close before, but now we've in a sense become "impersonal" to each other. I feel I have become more modest, more stringent, and less open because of my position. It kills me that I had to live with those secrets, and even now, there are still things that she doesn't know. It is these secrets that are the cause that drives us further apart. All I wish is that we can have the relationship that we shared before, and that we can regain the love that brought us together.

That is my story.


	12. Mecha Melee

**Chapter 12—Mecha Melee**

And so, Anubis was finished with his story. There was a moment of silence as the cadets let his words sink in. Though they thought they had been through a lot of turmoil themselves growing up, the rangers knew that none of their stories could compare to that of their commander's. None of this was known to any of them before now. A few minutes had passed before Sky broke the silence.

"Nothing against your reasoning, sir," he said, "but I wish we knew all this about you a lot sooner."

"And why do you wish that?" Anubis asked.

"Well, Commander, I guess I speak for the rest of my squad when I say that we never thought of you in that perspective."

"Meaning…" responded the commander, wanting further explanation.

"Sky says that we always thought of you as having lived this great life that any person would want to live," replied Jack. "We sort of took who you really are for granted."

"So I see," he answered. "_All_ of you thought of me that way?" Everyone simply nodded.

"Well, I guess you can't judge a book by its cover, huh?" Z remarked.

"Indeed," he replied. There was a slight pause until another issue came to the commander's mind. "By the way, when I went to my quarters to change before our training, I noticed that my room was—for lack of other words—trashed. Does anyone care to explain?" There was another pause as the rangers looked at one another, seeing if anyone would reply to Anubis first.

At last, Bridge spoke up. "You were in a fifty percent conscious-fifty percent unconscious state in which your mind combined fantasy and reality while simultaneously emitting signals of increased mania, and the aggression experienced as a direct result of that severe mania caused the disorganization of your quarters…sir." Everyone just stared at Bridge after he had finished.

"Okay, can anyone translate what Bridge said for the rest of us?" the commander asked with a confused tone.

"Sure, Commander, I'm fluent in 'Bridge'," Syd replied. She began to speak, but then Jack cut her off.

"Wait a minute," he said. "You're fluent in 'Bridge', but you're not fluent in 'science'? Bridge _is_ science!"

"Hey, if you knew him as long as I have, you'd understand him too," she snapped back. "Like I was saying, Bridge said that you were attacking someone in your nightmare, when you were really attacking us. The fight we had caused the mess in your room."

"Then how did my _king-size_ bed get flipped over?" Anubis asked.

"You picked it up and tried to crush us with it, sir," Sky answered. "I also got my black eye during that fight."

"Don't you remember anything from your nightmare, Commander?" asked Jack.

"Hmm, let me see if I can recall what happened," he replied. Anubis then began to think through the sequence of events in the nightmare out loud. He continued for several minutes as the cadets matched the dream with the fight. "Then finally, they all attacked me at once and I blacked out before waking up in the recovery room."

"Well, everything seems to fit together," Z said.

The commander thought for a minute. "I'm not saying that I don't trust your words, cadets, but all of this is still hard for me to believe. If only I could _see_ what happened…"

"Actually, that might be possible," Bridge said, pressing a few buttons on his side of the central console. "All we'd have to do is see if there is a security log listed for that time and room, and then we can review the video."

"You mean…there's a camera in my room!" the commander exclaimed in surprise. His feelings about that were obviously not pleasant.

"Well, actually, there are cameras in everyone's quarters," Bridge answered, pressing on the touch screen in front of him for the recent security log listing for Anubis' room.

"THERE'S A CAMERA IN MY ROOM!" all the other cadets shouted in unison. Immediately after, there was a hectic commotion about all of the possible embarrassing things that could have been caught on camera. Anubis just sighed in disbelief and made no effort to calm the rangers down, since he knew he was in the same boat. Apparently, no one knew about the cameras but Bridge.

"Guys, it's okay!" Bridge shouted over the commotion. "The cameras only self-activate if there is a major disturbance!" The rest of the B-squad quieted down.

"And what actually qualifies as a 'major disturbance'?" Z asked as she made quote marks in the air with her fingers.

"I think the minimum requirement for activation would be violent activity," Bridge answered. "I'd say our fight with Cruger was pretty violent, so it should be on here……Oh, here it is!" Bridge activated the log, and a video was projected onto a blank side wall.

The vantage point was in the top corner of the room above the commander's bed—a point at which nearly the entire room could be seen. It started at the point when Anubis bolted out of bed and screamed at the rangers. He immediately recognized everything he had said in the dream from the video. However, Anubis wasn't prepared for the part where he tried to choke Dr. Manx to death. He just stared blankly at the display, shocked at what he had done. Over the course of the tape, the B-squad gradually morphed to ranger form to match their own power with their commander's, and Anubis was knocked unconscious at the end. At that point, Bridge ended the presentation.

"I guess…I _have_ to believe it now…" said Anubis, obviously upset about what he had just seen. "…And my attack on Kat……How could I have been so reckless?"

"Don't blame yourself, Commander," Sky replied. "Sky replied. "You didn't have control over yourself then, and we would probably have acted the same way, had it happened to any one of us."

"I guess you're right," Anubis said. "Nonetheless, I am still sorry for what you cadets had to go through in there. Now, on the matter of retrieving Kat…"

Suddenly, every alarm in the command chamber blared as the room flashed red, followed by a moderate shaking of the base. Explosions could be heard from outside as Anubis and the rangers stumbled to their feet. The shaking stopped not much longer after it had started.

"What's the situation? The commander asked, walking to a console on the wall where Bridge was already attempting to bring up the exterior security cameras. The others followed.

"From the looks of things," Bridge started as the live image to the east appeared on the screen, "we're under attack by a giant robot."

"Then we have no choice but to take care of this first," the commander replied. "Rangers, suit up!"

Jack and his team approached the center of the room with morphers in hand, and shouted in unison. "S.P.D., EMERGENCY!"

A simultaneous morphing sequence followed their slogan shout and was complete in seconds, Anubis headed to a neighboring console on the perimeter wall.

"It's a good thing Kat showed me how to do her job," he said as he picked up a headset and put it on. It took some configuring, but somehow he got it to fit. He then typed several sequences of commands into the computer.

"Delta Squad Runners activated, bay two," Anubis said into the mic, his voice echoing around the base. After a few more keystrokes, several consoles in the chamber slid upwards, revealing numbered chutes that allowed access to their respective runners. Each ranger went to his or her matching chute and jumped inside feet first. Screams of delight and excitement were heard as they slid down and landed in the squad runners. Once inside, the rangers inserted their morphers into the slots provided to get the vehicles completely online.

"We're ready to roll, Commander!" the red ranger stated, hands on the controls.

"Opening bay two doors," Anubis replied with more keystrokes. The enormous steel doors in the bay began to slide open sideways at his command. As they moved, the rangers prepared to exit and revved up the engines.

"You guys ready?" Jack asked his fellow cadets.

"Ready when you are!" Sky exclaimed.

"Yeah, me too!" added Syd.

"Let's kick its butt!" shouted Z.

"……I'm hungry," said an unenthusiastic Bridge. All that followed was an awkward silence. "…What? What did I say?"

"Bay two doors are open. Squad runners are clear for exit," said the commander before clicking the intercom switch off. The runners roared to life as they left the base one by one with Jack in the lead.

"Time to se who we're up against," said the pink ranger as she ran a scan on the opposing robot, including its occupants. The mechanized monstrosity stood around five hundred feet tall and roughly had the appearance of a reddish-colored canine. "That's strange, there seems to be twenty humanoid dogs operating that thing!"

Back in the base, Anubis had run his own diagnostics. "Confirming that. I'm also picking up a definite Sirian signature in the mechanics, but the whole thing is running on a type of energy I've never seen before, so keep your guard up."

Inside the enemy bot, the canines—clad in their gang's regalia—were shaping their plan of attack. "We have five vehicles approaching in a line," said one canine of the two seated inside the front of the head.

A third dog, seated on a higher deck in the robot-head's center, spoke up. "This should be easy. Let's fire a few rounds in a vertical wave; that ought to do some damage."

A slit opened up down the center of the mech's front side, and several large fireballs came shooting out, about to plummet down on the squad runner line.

"He's firing! Everybody split the line!" Jack ordered as he veered left. The other rangers followed suit in opposite directions, like opening a zipper. The maneuver was made in the nick of time as the wave came down—all shots missing.

"None of the rounds scored a hit," reported one of the two canines on the upper deck behind the one in the center, who growled in response.

"Switch the vertical axis to a horizontal one and fire again!" he commanded. The vertical slit was within a circular disk that spun ninety degrees unto the line was adjusted. Another—larger—set of fireballs shot out along the new axis and rained down on the rangers' approach.

"I'm hit!" Bridge yelled as his runner swerved.

"Me, too, this robot has a lot more firepower than we thought!" Syd added as her cockpit shook from impact.

"Jack, I suggest we put the runners together while we still have them," said Sky, dodging several shots.

"I agree," said Anubis over the comm. "Stay separated, and it'll just pick you off one at a time."

"Alright guys," Jack replied. "Initiate combination sequence!" With a few button presses, each runner moved into position, transformed their structures, and locked themselves in place in conjunction with the others. After the legs, body, arms, and head were combined, the process was complete.

"Delta Squad Megazord!" the rangers shouted as the mech's sirens blared.

The canines saw this and knew they had to change tactics. The horizontal slit on the robot closed, thus causing the firestorm to dissipate.

One of the five dogs controlling the weapons in the chest cavity paged the control room in the head. "Strength and health of the enemy has increased by 250. Requesting usage of high-energy weaponry."

"Acknowledged," the leader in the center replied. "Fire the energy beam on my mark."

The robot turned to aim at the megazord as the circular disk on its chest began to spin again. This time, it locked in diagonally and slid completely open. The inside began to glow as it charged up to fire. Fortunately, the lengthy firing sequence gave the rangers some reaction time.

"Looks like this is going to be a big blast; we better do something quick!" said the yellow ranger.

"Then it's time to whip out our weapon," Jack answered as he flipped a switch. The side of the megazord's right leg slid open and a large sword was extended outwards. The mech then grabbed it by the hilt and swung the blade in front of itself in a defensive position as the extending mechanisms retracted back into the leg. "Let's see it get through _this_!"

"Don't get too overconfident, Jack," said Anubis as he continued to download information on the enemy machine. "Once fully charged, this one attack will use up to 75 of its energy reserves, but can cause just as much damage if the megazord takes a direct hit."

"I'm going to have to agree with the commander on this one," the green ranger added. "Maybe we should just dodge instead of defend."

"Charge is at a hundred percent!" exclaimed a dog on the comm.

The leader nodded. "Fire at will!" With that, a massive energy beam of red blew forth from the robot's chest and charged right for the megazord. Jack wanted the rangers to hold their ground and block, but as much as he wanted, dodging instead of blocking seemed to be the best action.

"………Get out of the way!" he yelled. Together, they immediately made the mech leap to the side at the last possible moment, but the beam was able to knock the weapon out of its hands. The sword was incinerated instantly as the red light continued to travel—right in the direction of the Space Patrol Delta base. Anubis could see the beam coming right for the viewscreen, and braced for what seemed to be an imminent impact. However, the energy flew off to the side, missing the command chamber by inches. The commander, wondering what happened to the "imminent impact" he was going to received, cycled through the exterior cameras in time to see the beam shoot over the remainder of Newtech before soaring above the Pacific and to the horizon.

"Commander, are you alright?" asked a concerned Sky. Everyone had seen the near miss.

"I'm fine, Sky," he replied, "but I don't_ ever_ want to have to go through that again."

"Well, at _least_ we disabled their primary weapon," muttered the leader. "What is left in the energy reserves?"

A dog on the upper deck answered. "From the two fireball waves and the energy beam combined, our reserves are down to thirteen percent. I suggest we take the opportunity to refill while our opponent is weaponless."

"Point taken," the leader replied, picking up the comm. "Head to legs. Activate the energy conversion vacuum. Be sure to pick a large target' we have eighty-seven percent to replace."

The canine mech then turned to the side until it faced a sizeable skyscraper several blocks south. Each leg had three canines controlling it, and they were responsible for energy restoration and general movement.

"Target is locked," said one. "Initiate tail vacuum."

The black tail suddenly extended outwards and bent around the robot's body to face the skyscraper. The tip of the metallic tail then spread open to form a funnel; the tail was a hose.

"What the heck is that?" Syd asked.

"It's aiming for that building!" added Z.

"Whatever it is, we better take it out before it can do damage," stated Sky.

"Right," Jack replied. "Good thing the sword wasn't our only weapon. Time to bring out the big guns!"

Another slot opened on the left leg of the megazord, and a giant blaster was extended outward from the gap. The megazord grabbed the firearm and aimed at the opposing mech as the weapon's extending mechanism retracted. At that moment, the enemy's energy conversion vacuum began to inhale; the targeted building began to rumble as all of its windows shattered, raining glass shards on the streets below. Not long after, the entire structure slowly slid off its foundation as it continued to get sucked towards the vacuum.

"It's…a vacuum?" asked the pink ranger, surprised at what she was seeing.

"We've got to sever the connection," Z said.

"Alright then, lets aim for the hose and fire!" the red ranger commanded. The megazord aimed at its metallic tail and fired several rounds in an attempt to disable the appendage. Unfortunately, the shots that hit only bounced off the hard armor. By this time, the skyscraper was in contact with the funnel and was buckling in half under the intense pressure.

"It's not working; our attacks aren't strong enough!" said Bridge.

"Just keep firing, guys, its got to have a weak point," replied Jack. The megazord continued the assault on various sections, only to see the same, deflective result. After this, the building was completely destroyed and inside the black hose that led to a large storage compartment on the enemy robot's back. Once the rubble was completely inside the chamber, it was sealed off from the hose, and the tail retracted back to its original position. The matter-to-energy transition process ensued next.

Back in the command chamber, Anubis had finished his evaluation of the Sirian mech. He got on the comm to alert the rangers of his findings. "The weapon it just used is an energy converter. They're using the energy mass equivalent to the mass of the building for fuel."

"And there's no way to damage it?" Sky asked with a hint of frustration.

"The metal alloy used in its structure is hard enough to withstand laser fire," the commander replied. "Your best bed is to engage the enemy hand-to-hand."

"What, no weapons?" asked Jack.

"I see weapons as crutches in a battle," Anubis replied. "Your _true_ power lies within yourselves. Trust me."


	13. Gruumm's in the Game

**Chapter 13—Gruumm's in the Game**

Up in the Earth's exosphere, a green Troobian warship soared within its planetary orbit. Inside, an angered Emperor Gruumm stomped his way through a corridor on his way to Mora's chamber, his eyes glowing furiously red. The reason for his anger? The red Sirian warship blew by his own craft and into the lower atmosphere not long ago, and he assumed that its inhabitants were planning on taking the planet for themselves. The thought of him—the _emperor_—being showed up by people who refers to as "inferior" forces made his blood boil as he entered Mora's room on the ship. As usual, she was having a tea party with her dysfunctional dolls in the gloomiest of settings.

She looked up from her "tea" to see the emperor stomp in. "What's the matter, Gruumm?" Mora asked with her cruel, accented voice. "Your brain looks like it's about to blow a fuse."

"Silence, Mora, I'm not in the mood for your comments," Gruumm angrily replied.

"Oh, are you mad about that warship that left you in the dust?" she continued, not caring if she grated on the emperor's nerves.

"What? How did you know about that?"

"Geez, Gruumm, it flew right in front of the window, and probably every window on this side of the ship. Even a _blind_ person could have seen that."

"Well, _maybe_ I was on the _other_ side of the ship!"

Mora rolled her eyes. "Anyway, what's the big deal?"

"You want the big deal? This planet is _mine_! How dare that worthless race fly in and take what I have rightfully claimed! I ought to destroy every last one of them!"

"Kill, kill, kill; is that _all_ you ever think about?" She took another sip and then got up from the table. "There are better ways to deal with this, you know. Hey, I could get Bugglesworth to turn them all into dolls so I can add them to my collection…"

"No! You already have _more_ than enough of your dolls littered around my ship."

Mora groaned at his response. "Okay, fine. Or, you could make them all your slaves…"

Gruumm thought for a moment at her idea, for it sounded quite appealing to him. "For once, I like your reasoning. However, I still need to locate that ship. Come, Mora, I will need your assistance."

The emperor turned and left the way he came in as Mora followed behind him. A dimly lit and murky corridor was traversed before entering a room that was the hub of the warship's navigations. Many monitors lined the walls of the circular room; Mora and Gruumm made their way to the massive holographic projector in the chamber's center.

"I'll do the looking; you do the controls," he commanded. Mora let out a sigh and walked to a console adjacent to the projector. After a few button presses, a three-dimensional holographic image of Earth appeared above the large device. "Activate the energy readings."

Within seconds, the holographic globe was color-coded in accordance to energy output. Normal areas were in green and high-energy yields showed up as red. Gruumm walked around the display, noticing that most of the map was green, with some yellow here and there at points of civilization. However, when the emperor reached the western hemisphere, he saw a dot placed on the west coast of the United States. The area had such a high energy yield that it showed up as black on the scanner.

Mora, who stood by at the display controls, also took notice of the development. "I'm guessing you want me to zoom in."

"Yes, Mora," the emperor replied. The girl slowly pushed a lever upwards, making the map draw closer to the energy source. The hologram soon sank down into the projector surface until it showed a curved plane with a growing three-dimensional landscape. As the display got larger, the dot of energy shown previously began to split. They were so close together on the world map that the scanner showed them as one source. Finally, the motion slowed to a stop with the entire city of Newtech in view. At this altitude, the two energy readings were clearly distinguishable from each other.

"Gruumm, why is one of the dots on the Space Patrol Delta base?" asked Mora. "I didn't know it produced _that_ much energy."

"The base?" Gruumm replied; he had his focus on the other reading outside of the city limits. "Interesting, I wonder what they have that could give off so much…wait……" Gruumm interrupted himself to think.

Mora became concerned. "What is it?"

After some deep thought into the past, the emperor realized that there was only one thing in that base that was capable of such power. "No! It can't be!" Gruumm screamed with intense anger that rattled the warship. "Taking over the Earth has just become a hundred times HARDER!" He pounded on the projector, causing the display to fill with static for several seconds.

"Sounds like you know what it is," the girl calmly said with a hint of indifference. Gruumm's fury didn't faze her in the least as he continued to scream and shoot bolts of energy from his staff in random directions. However, Mora became impatient after waiting through his tantrum for several minutes without receiving a reply. "Stop yelling, and tell me what it is!"

Realizing that Mora had not been around long enough to witness what he was referring to, Gruumm calmed down and began to explain. "Doggie Cruger is the source of that energy."

"You've got to be kidding me. He couldn't even beat one of my _weaker_ creations if his life depended on it! All he does is sit behind his desk and give orders. Kind of like you, in a sense, only you don't have a desk…"

"Silence! Your incompetence sickens me. I am not lying; several years ago during the conquest of the Novar star system, I fought him on the system's third planet. Though the invasion was an easily-acquired success, I would not leave without damage, thanks be to Anubis. Despite knowing that all was lost, he destroyed my staff, ripped through my Krybot army, _sliced_ off my _horn_……I will not lose to him AGAIN!"

"You lost to a _dog_? That's pathetic…"

"One more insult out of your mouth, and I'll be forced to turn you back into what you were when I found you!" Gruumm aimed his magical energy staff at Mora's face to solidify his threat.

"Okay, okay! I'll be good, just _please _don't turn me back!" The emperor nodded in approval and lifted his weapon. "You know, we've never considered the _other_ energy source yet."

"Yes, it seems to be just as strong as Doggie's output." Gruumm walked around the projector as Mora zoomed in a little more on the second source's location. "Mora, disable the energy color code, I can't see the geography." Soon, the landscape was revealed.

"What's up with all the flattened grass…in the shape of a………warship?"

"What?" Gruumm analyzed the shape himself for verification. "So, it seems that warship holds an equal power. I suppose acquiring this source for ourselves should be our first priority." The Troobian scanner technology was apparently more advance than those of Space Patrol Delta's in order to overpower the energy cloak.

"Then let's go get it!"

"Not so fast. I don't want us to blindly run into a trap. We'll need someone to get some intelligence first."

"That'll be easy. I'll just draw up a monster in my book and send it to…"

"No, Mora! Your 'monsters' are bumbling idiots! I need someone with finesse for this espionage mission, and your creations would get caught before they even leave the ship!"

"How is that possible?"

"It's just an expression of how much I hate them."

Mora became irritated. "Then _who_ will we send then?"

"I know just the person." Gruumm began to laugh as he pointed his staff at Mora again, this time firing a beam that completely enveloped her body. The child screamed in terror as she morphed in the light. After several seconds, the light of the energy faded, revealing Mora's original adult form of Morgana.

"Why did you do this to meeeeee?" she screamed in her adult voice. "I didn't do anything wrong! Whyyyyyyyy!"

"You're the only one capable of being successful in this, now do as I say!" Morgana instead began to wail loudly as she turned the projector off. The emperor became angry with her attitude. "Quiet! If you get what I want, I'll consider turning you back."

At this, she began to calm down. "R-really?"

"Yes, now go! We have no time to waste!" Gruumm went to another console along the perimeter wall and began punching in numbers. "I'm uploading the ship's coordinates into the teleporter. You should be glad that you don't have to pilot a ship."

Morgana simply turned and walked out into the hall. She still was angry that Gruumm had changed her back into the form she despised, but she would do anything to become a kid again—even if it meant following Gruumm's commands. Walking in a black and violet armored suit, she shortly reached the teleportation pad and stepped upon it. A brilliant glowing column enveloped her body and dissipated in an instant, sending her on her way to investigate the Sirian visitors.


	14. Take Flight

**Chapter 14—Take Flight**

Back in Newtech City, the mechanized battle continued. The enemy had replenished its energy supply for its many weapons, and the megazord's long-range attacks were rendered useless against the Sirian defenses. Close-range combat was the only option remaining.

"Looks like we have no choice," said the red ranger. The megazord's extending mechanisms were deployed from its right side, and the blaster was put away.

"Yeah, time to get physical," Z added. Once the firearm was retracted, the ranger's machine began to advance for the enemy.

In the Sirian control room, the canines were preparing to fire more projectiles with their newly replenished reserves. "The enemy is advancing with no weapons," said a dog on the lower deck.

The leader in the center replied. "I see they're tired of beating around the bush. Well, two can play at that game." He picked the intercom to send a mech-wide message. "All stations, halt weapon processes and prepare to advance and engage." Their canine machine slowly started to match the speed of the oncoming megazord as they traveled on a collision course.

Commander Cruger had taken notice of the enemy's change in tactics and was satisfied with the fact that the newly acquired energy wouldn't be utilized. Nonetheless, it still was needed to power the robot and give it movement, so he struggled to think of a way to shut the machine down. He brainstormed despite the facts that the armor protecting the energy storage was virtually impenetrable and the rangers would find it extremely difficult to get behind the enemy long enough to deploy a plan of action. Then he got an idea.

Anubis got on the base intercom once again. "Boom, come to the command center immediately." Not even a minute had passed when the double-doored entry slid open and Boom rushed in wearing his dirty gray uniform.

"You called………sir?" Boom asked, staring with shock at the commander's appearance. Word had gotten around to him about Anubis' developments, but he had seen not of it for himself.

"Stop staring at me and come over here!" Anubis exclaimed, and Boom did so without hesitation. "I'm sure you've heard about all of this, but an explanation can come later. I need you to spot for me; can you do that?"

"Spot? Uh, what do you mean?" Boom was unaware that he could fly.

Anubis sighed. "Just take this headset, look at the screen, and notify me of my relative position in relation to the enemy mech and other possible obstructions. It's not as hard as it seems." He handed Boom the headset he was wearing, then opened a drawer below the console and pulled out another one fitted with a mile-radius sensor. After rising from his seat and switching the viewscreen to the headset radar, the commander had Boom all set up. "Are you up to it?"

"Yes, sir!" he replied with the S.P.D. salute. Boom took the commander's seat and adjusted the headset to his liking.

"Good," Anubis replied before making his way to the door. "Alright, I'm counting on you!" The commander then left the chamber and took a left down the hall as he made his way to the stairs. Everyone who passed by him stared at his get-up, but he paid them no heed as he reached a room on the right and entered.

As he started up the couple flights of stairs to the roof level, Anubis switched his own headset on and configured it around his head. As soon as he did so, a very loud Boom was already yelling through the speaker and making the commander cringe from the volume. "Look out Commander Cruger! Stairs are approaching at twelve o'clock! Now they're going under you, and there's another set coming from the other direction! Watch out for that door! And that fire extinguisher on your left!"

"Boom!" Anubis yelled. He finally stopped his energetic rambling. "Two things. One, wait until I'm actually in the air before you start spotting. Two, don't tell me about every little bird or leaf or cloud that passes by; it's unnecessary and annoying."

"Yes, sir!" he exclaimed loudly. Anubis grimaced at the horrifically loud level of Boom's voce and checked the volume dial as he started up the last flight of stairs. His own volume level was fine.

"One more thing Boom," he said. "Stop eating your mic! You're killing my ears!"

"Oh, sorry sir," Boom replied, moving the mic away from his mouth as he spoke. His voice was considerably softer through the speakers. "Is this better?"

"Much better." The commander reached the top of the stair sets and pushed open the single door in front of him. A moderate wind blew through his "hair" as he emerged onto the roof of the canine head that topped the base. By this time, the Delta Squad Megazord and the Sirian machine were battling hand-to-hand in front of Space Patrol Delta. Anubis calmly walked across the roof and stepped out and down onto to the muzzle of the giant head. Several feet later, he stood on the edge of a seven hundred foot drop and looked down on the traffic far below.

It didn't take long before the Sirians took notice. "What the heck?" One of them had Anubis captured on one of the external cameras. "Boss, you might want to take a look at this."

"We're in the middle of fighting here, what do you want?" the leader growled. Momentarily, the image was displayed on his control console. It was a live feed out the side of the robot that showed the commander standing on the edge of the base's summit. "That's……Anubis!" So that's where he is…" Once again, he communicated with the rest of the occupants. "Attention, all personnel. Target has been sighted."

The rangers realized that something was up when the opposition's attack rate began to drop. "What's going on?" asked the green ranger. "Their attacks are slowing down."

"Great, let's sock it to them while they're weakening!" Sky replied as he got ready to attack.

"Hold up," said Z, looking out of the corner of her viewscreen at the base. "Is that Commander Cruger on the top?"

"What are you talking about?" Jack asked. The other rangers quickly verified the yellow ranger's discovery.

The shirtless Anubis continued to stand over the urban abyss as the fight up ahead began to slow. Though he was sure of what he was about to do, the commander was still nervous. "It's been nearly fifty years since I last spread my wings," he thought. "I pray I have the strength to do this after all of these years." He took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing." Then he fell over the edge.

The fight completely stopped as everyone witnessed the fall. "What!" the Sirian leader yelled just as Anubis disappeared from view. "Did he just commit _suicide_? Sinubus won't like this…"

"The commander fell off the roof!" yelled Jack as the rangers also witnessed the fall. "I can't believe it!"

"Nooooo! Doggie!" Z exclaimed. Everyone thought that Anubis had fallen to his death in the street. Though he did fall, the combatants really didn't know the rest of the story. As Anubis plummeted head-first to the ground, his six wings quickly expanded and unfurled in the wind. Right before impact, the commander curved to the lateral and then straight upwards as he furiously flapped his wings for more altitude. It took some time, but he finally was able to get back above the skyline, and he switched his mic to speak to Boom, as well as the rangers. Everyone was too shocked for words.

"What are you guys doing?" Anubis asked the B-squad as he approached the enemy. "Beat it up!"

"……Yes, sir!" The rangers finally snapped to their senses. The megazord threw a couple of quick punches and connected with the unsuspecting opposition.

"Arrgh, get your heads in gear and retaliate!" exclaimed the leader as the control room shook from impact. The robot threw a punch in return, but the megazord was able to block. Meanwhile, Anubis continued his approach.

"Boss, Anubis is coming this way at eight miles per hour," one dog on the upper deck said.

"Our orders are to capture him and bring his hide back to our base, so that is what we're going to do." He got on the intercom once more. "Head to shoulders, deploy the aerial assault."

Two hatches slid upwards behind the shoulders of the metal canine. Once they were in the full open position, two Sirians leapt out of each side wearing armor joints on their shoulders, elbows, and knees and plasma jetpacks for an aerial offensive. The packs activated about a second after the initial jump, and the squad maintained an altitude of nearly six hundred feet as they curved in pairs around each side of the mech and flew to capture the commander.

"Cruger!" Boom exclaimed. "I've got four guys approaching you from the front! They're about a thousand feet off."

"Thanks for the heads up," Anubis replied, seeing the oncoming threat. "Stay on 'em, Boom."

As the four came within five hundred feet, one of the center canines fired a couple of nets from his shoulder armor in an attempt to entangle Anubis and make him easier to capture. He flew up above the nets as the other center dog fired another series. Anubis dipped downward immediately after dodging the first set and avoided the second one was well. By this time, his enemies were within twenty feet, and they began to surround their target. One of them approached from the rear.

"Look out, one's coming up behind you!" Boom yelled. Just seconds after the warning, the dog jumped on the commander's back and tried to strangle him. They struggled for several seconds until Anubis was able to smash him in the face, causing him to slide most of the way off, holding on only by his wing. The canine's gear began to loosen from the hit, and Anubis took advantage by ripping off his armor, piece by piece. The other three kept firing nets and circled the commander.

"Nets from all sides, Cruger!" said Boom as the projectiles rapidly closed in. There was nowhere for Anubis to go except down, and he took the route in the nick of time. The nets flew past each other at the former point of impact, taking the three canines by surprise as their attack began to backfire. They attempted to evade, but none were successful, and each of them became ensnared within the nets' tight grip. Anubis then took the shoulder plate of the fourth dog that still clung to his wing and fired another net, capturing him inside. For his finishing move, the commander reached into his pocket as he hovered in place and pulled out his judgment scanner. With a few clicks, a wide beam spewed from the device and enveloped all four enemies at once, trapping them inside containment cards. The miniature cells flew back to the scanner, and Anubis placed them inside his pants pocket. He then continued his approach toward the Sirian mech.

Meanwhile, the mechanized duel was evenly matched as each side connected only about half of their attacks, though there had been no significant damaging hits. The only thing being accomplished was a gradual energy drain.

"I don't know how much longer we can keep this up," said the blue ranger as his cockpit shook from another Sirian-induced impact. "Our energy levels are down to forty percent."

"We still need to continue fighting," Syd replied. "The stats indicate that their energy level is dropping faster than ours."

The Megazord landed another punch on the enemy robot's chest. "She's right, guys," said the red ranger. "Only a few more direct hits, and we've got 'em!"

The Sirians were also aware of the dire circumstances. "Energy levels are down to twenty-eight percent; we're going to need that vacuum again soon," said a canine.

"This isn't looking good," replied the leader, as he started to contact the leg operators. "Head to legs, get the energy vacuum back online. We need another reserve refill." He then turned the comm off and looked out the front viewscreen. "What's the status of Anubis?"

Another minion on the lower deck queued up the aerial squad's progress, only to find that the four had been reduced to two-dimensional forms of energy contained in the S.P.D. commander's pocket. "The capture attempt failed; Anubis is approaching at over ninety miles per hour, sir!"

"What!"

The Sirian machine's black metal tail extended once again, with the tip expanding to form the hose's funnel. Another large skyscraper in the city became the target. By this time, Anubis was three-fourths of the way to the robot.

"Commander, the tail on the robot is extending!" Boom exclaimed over the headset. Just as he said the warning, the tail came out from behind the machine with its target in his general region. Anubis soon flew past vacuum's target.

"Damn, I can't believe it's used up its energy so fast," he muttered. "Can you spot any weakness through the research I've done?"

"No, sir, that armor is impenetrable. Uh, maybe if we got some kind of explosive inside?"

"……Yes, that's it! We have to destroy it from the inside out." The vacuum began to inhale.

"But, sir, you don't have any weapons, and the megazord is occupied in combat!"

"I know…" He thought to himself for a moment, and came up with a risky idea. "Boom, I don't know about this, but it's the only way I can think of, so please don't object." He then switched his mic to the rangers. "Rangers, keep up the fight, you're doing a great job. Now, to set my plan into motion." He flew right for the funnel of the vacuum, and got sucked inside.

The canines in the robot's legs took notice of the hose's contents immediately and paged the control center in the head. "Anubis got sucked in! He's moving up the hose as we speak!"

"Nooo! He's supposed to be ALIVE!" the leader shouted in reply. Things were looking bad for S.P.D.'s opposition; their split focus gave the megazord plenty of openings to land stronger attacks. The machine shook wildly as many of the canines in all sections lost their balance. "Turn the vacuum off NOW!"

Inside the metallic hose, Anubis retracted his wings and surrounded himself in a soft aqua barrier as he tumbled around inside the moving appendage. The Sirians in the legs finally managed to shut the mechanism off, but the retraction of the tail only caused the commander to move up the tube and finally into the energy storage component on the back. A hatch slammed shut after he entered, sealing him inside. His surroundings were pitch black at first, but a few internal lights soon flickered on, revealing a worn and rusted metallic shell. Debris leftover from earlier littered the floor and walls as Anubis stood on the closed hatch that he entered in. Another closed hatch was located in front of him on a wall adjacent to the back that allowed entry from the control center in the legs.

The head was paged again. "The vacuum has been deactivated, but our sensors show that Anubis is within the conversion chamber. What are your orders?"

The leader thought for a moment as the other canines in the head tried to help combat the megazord. Instead, they took more impact. The entire machine was soon paged. "All units, arm yourselves and meet me at the conversion chamber hatch. We're bringing him in."

Back at the rangers' position in their own machine, the Sirian mech appeared to stop attacking completely. The megazord held off on it's attacking in response.

"Great, what's going on now?" asked a slightly irritated Jack, annoyed by the extreme fluctuation of the enemy's attack rate.

"Um, I don't know if I'm just seeing things, but didn't I just see Commander Cruger fly into their vacuum?" Bridge asked. There was silence for a few seconds.

"Is he crazy?" asked Sky.

"Look, guys, I think Doggie knows what he's doing," said Z. "We know how strong he is now."

"I'm going to try to patch this connection through; I'm getting a lot of static on his end," Syd said, adjusting a few knobs on the machine's communication system. "Commander, can you hear me? Are you ok?"

Anubis replied with a slight echo from the metallic walls. "I'm fine, Sydney. Rangers, standby." His voice seemed darker than usual.

"Well, I guess he has a handle on things after all," the blue ranger said. "But there's got to be something we can do. I mean, I can't just sit here and do nothing to help."

"We have no choice but to watch," Jack answered. "This is the commander's fight now."

The canines began to file out of the chest and head sections to join those in the legs, grabbing arms in the chest cavity along the way. Just minutes later, the sixteen remaining occupants were armed and ready as they stood before the hatch, with the leader in front. Anubis could sense their presence on the other side and his anger levels rose considerably. The rangers could pick up their commander growling into his mic, but only waited with anticipation of his next move.

"Ready your weapons," said the leader as he and the others aimed right for the door. All arms were set to stun, knowing that it would take a lot of firepower to bring something the equivalent of Sinubus down. "Three………two………one………open the hatch."

The door slid open. As soon as Anubis was revealed, the Sirians opened fire. The commander spread out his arms and immediately surrounded himself in a thick aqua barrier that absorbed the energy attacks and barged forward into the main part of the robot, knocking many of the canines down. He screamed as he ripped weapons out of their hands and crushing them with his fists. The opposition maintained their onslaught for only a minute before falling out of position and fleeing from Anubis' fury as he started to tear up the machinery inside. His strength increased with every passing minute as he smashed consoles with his fists and ripped wires out of the walls. It wasn't much longer before he passed into the phase that had been achieved three times before in his life. RAGE.

The scenario vaguely resembled that of his first rampage in the Sirian research facility as Anubis destroyed everything he could find. His strength reached incredible levels as he tore entire consoles out of their fixtures and hurled them across the chamber in random directions. The leader and his troops meanwhile scrambled for the emergency exits in the feet; they knew that his potential power could match that of his clone. After everything was destroyed in the leg region, Anubis bolted up a stairway to reach the chest cavity, ripping up the walls along the way. The mic on his headset was on all time, and the B-squad could hear every bit of terror ensuing ahead of them. It didn't take long before they recalled the events in their commander's story and realized that his anger was being released once again.

About fifteen minutes in, a hatched in the side of the right foot opened, and the Sirian canines began to file out with the leader in front. "Jack! They're making a run for it out of the robot's foot!" said the yellow ranger, being the first one to notice the escape.

"They're not getting away with this that easily," the red ranger replied. "Alright, guys, lets take it to the ground and bring them in." The rangers left their positions and leapt from the megazord, landing in a spot about fifty feet from the escaping dogs and running up to apprehend the sixteen. "S.P.D.! You're under arrest!"

The canine leader was taken aback by the appearance of their adversaries. "Don't make me laugh! Do you really think we're going to submit to a bunch of bright-colored, spandex-wearing losers?"

"You will once we're finished with you," the blue ranger replied. "Now, are you going to turn yourselves peacefully, or are we going to have to do this the hard way?"

"We'll take our chances," the leader growled. "C'mon gang, let's destroy them!" The sixteen-strong enemy force charged forth as the rangers stood their ground in defensive positions awaiting the oncoming stampede. Within seconds, both sides collided and began the melee in the street. The ratio of fighters was nearly four-to-one, with each ranger having to defend against three or four Sirians. The melee bore some similarity to fighting the usual robot Krybots, but the canines had to be contained and not destroyed because the killing of people is considered as unethical and a crime to Space Patrol Delta.

Anubis' mindless rage continued on as he stepped up his efforts to destroy the machine—piece by piece. However, destroying the robot by hand was not his original plan. At first, he was going to block the canine's attacks with his aqua shield, contain them all in cards like the previous four, and then find a way out of the robot to meet the rangers. Instead, his past on his planet of origin came back to mind as the Sirians approached the hatch, causing his deep hatred of the race to boil to the surface. This hatred sent him into a maniacal frenzy as soon as Anubis got the opportunity, thus becoming the fuel for his relentless rampage.

After several minutes of fighting on the street, evidence of the concealed chaos wrought by Anubis became visible to the combatants as sparks spewed out onto the city below. Suddenly, a whole section of the chest blew from its connectors and began to plummet.

"Guys, heads up!" Bridge yelled as the hunk of metal collapsed above them. Everyone saw it coming and scattered in all directions, just before the quaking impact. As a thirty-foot deep asphalt crater was created, a second chunk of the robot exploded out of the back and smashed into an adjacent street, only indirectly affecting the rangers and Sirians with seismic activity. The fighting stopped due to the unpredictability of the machine's collapse.

Anubis had evaded the deconstruction of the lower half and moved up to the head to continue his chaos. The very first console he smashed triggered a chain reaction in the electrical system that led to the energy storage. When sparks flew out of the end of the chain and ignited the twenty-eight percent of fuel that remained, a massive explosion blew out of the back of the robot as a result, releasing a huge fireball into the air. Another chain reaction started from the leak created in the mech's energy circulatory system as whole sections of piping blew through the rusty red interior walls, spraying blazing hot fluid all over the machinery. Even though Anubis' mind was in a state of insanity, he at least had enough sense to escape before the machine's fate became his. The commander halted his wave of destruction, ran down to the lower deck, and smashed through the frontal viewscreen. His wings extended immediately, and Anubis glided from the detonating machine in the direction of the ground battle.

Both sides were regrouping to continue the fight when the commander landed in front of the B-squad. The Sirians were shocked that Anubis had survived the hell that he had created inside the machine, and they feared for their lives. His body and clothes were cut in many places, but still he stood with bared teeth and a killer growl. As the rangers looked on, Anubis turned his head to the left, giving them a glance and the only physical clue of his state of rage. His eyes had completely changed to solid black with glowing blue rings for pupils. He then turned his head back to the gang.

"Is this that _rage_ he was talking about?" Syd asked in a whisper.

"I have a bad feeling that it is," Sky whispered back.

"So what do we do now?" Z asked.

"I don't know, but if he plans on killing them, we can't let him do that," Jack quietly answered.

"How?" asked Bridge.

"If he goes for them, we've gotta try and hold him back," the red ranger replied. "That's all I can think of."

"Or, if that doesn't work, we can put him into a containment card until he comes to his senses," said the blue ranger. Just as he finished, Anubis began screaming with fury and bolted for the group, wanting to kill them all. The canines yelled and backed up as far as they could before hitting a wall behind them. They were stuck in a dead end as the commander drew closer.

"No! Stop!" Z yelled as she ran after him and the others followed. Fortunately, Anubis large size made him much slower than his pursuers, and they were easily able to catch up.

"Cruger! Snap out of it!" Sky yelled as he grabbed his right arm and tried to hold him back. Jack did the same with Anubis' left arm while Bridge forcefully pulled on his torso and the girls held his legs to the ground. With the five in their rangers' forms, keeping their commander in place was made possible, but nonetheless, Anubis still inched forward with deep growling toward the horrified gang. It was then that the yellow ranger made a bold decision. Z let go of his right leg and powered down to her normal form.

"Z, what are you doing!" Jack yelled, struggling to keep the commander under control.

"Don't worry about me, Jack," she replied as the girl cautiously walked to Anubis' front side. Z stood only inches ahead of him as she looked right into his glowing eyes. "Doggie…listen to me…" she softly said. "Please don't hurt them…You're better than that…I know you are…" Anubis tried to intimidate her by snarling louder, but the cadet refused to back down. Slowly, she raised her hands and touched his muzzle in a way as to comfort him. "Please, Doggie…you have to trust me…" She was on the verge of tears as the cornered canines looked on, not knowing how to react. Attacking would have been their only option, had they not left all of their firearms behind during their mad rush for the exit. "I know you're in a rage…but…on the inside…you have heart of gold…" At this, she completely broke down and threw her arms around his shoulders, smothering Anubis in an embrace and catching everyone by surprise. "I love you, Doggie."

Her words finally got through to Anubis as he stopped resisting the rangers. As they realized this and released their grip, a tear fell from the commander's eye, and they returned to their normal form, signaling that his state of rage was over. The Sirians sighed with relief, but the red ranger stepped forward and unlatched his patrol morpher from his belt. "Don't think that you're out of the woods yet!" he said, holding the device up at the group. They growled at the facts that they were about to be apprehended and there was no possible escape. "You are charged with disturbing the peace, destruction of public property, and assaulting an officer. Prepare to be judged." With that, the morpher flipped open and surrounded the canines in a virtual lateral column. An innocent blue "O" and a guilty red "X" alternatively flashed from a projection as the judgment scanner ran its detections on the suspects. It didn't take long for the process to wrap up, and the gang was left with the resulting red "X".

"GUILTY!" the rangers shouted in unison.

"That was a no-brainer," said Jack, closing the morpher and pressing a button to communicate with the base. "C'mon, RIC!"

At the S.P.D. base, RIC—the Robotic Interactive Canine—got the message and came galloping down the halls and through the front doors of the academy at lightning speed, with automated barking all the way. His navigation system locked on the rangers' location several blocks away, R.I.C. charged down the street and reached the B-squad in just seconds. Right before reaching them, the robotic dog leaped into the air and transformed its structure, forming a large double-barreled weapon. The red, blue, green, and pink rangers caught him on his way down, and targeted the gang. "CANINE CANNON! FIRE!" they said, pulling the trigger. Two balls of energy were fired, shooting down the way and engulfing the sixteen in a brilliant flash of energy. When the light had subsided, the canines were contained in cards that fell to the ground.

The rangers powered down and went to retrieve the containment cards as R.I.C. transformed back to his original form and Z and Anubis got over their moment of grief. Once all the cards were collected, the commander remembered the four he had obtained in the skies and pulled them out off his pocket to add to the stack, for a total of twenty.

"We ought to get you back to the base to get you patched up, sir," Sky said.

"No, I think I can handle this," Anubis replied. He crossed his arms across his chest and focused as the outlines of his body and scales glowed with a blue light. A minute later, he dropped his arms, and the glow faded. Since his injuries were only mere cuts and scratches, all were easily healed.

"I don't think I'm ever going to get used to that," said Jack. Suddenly, there was a large quake, making everyone stumble to keep their balance. The giant Sirian machine had grown too structurally weak to sustain its upright position, and had fallen backwards into the city park. A massive column of fire rose from the collapse and lifted into space with horrific noise.

Anubis chuckled. "Uh, I guess I got a little carried away, huh?"


	15. Villain Versus Villain

Chapter 15—Villain Versus Villain

Back in the Sirian warship control room, the gang leader Sinubus was busy looking through some more S.P.D. document obtained by various computer hackers on the vessel. He held triple the information he had before, but even that was only about ten pages. He growled to himself as he crumbled the documents into a large wad and hurled across the room, hitting an operator in the back of the head. The deck above was monitoring the mechanized battle versus the power rangers, and their facial expression hinted at the fact that their own side was going down. Once the attack squad was defeated and contained, _someone_ had to tell the leader the bad news. A few rounds of rock-paper-scissors later, a Doberman was the one to bear the news and sighed as he walked to the elevator and moved to the deck below.

The red dog turned to see the elevator stop at his floor and the canine slowly walked out. "You better have better news than this crappy intelligence I'm getting." Nervous, the minion didn't respond immediately. "WELL?"

"Well…um…………the attack squad………uh…………they lost……"

"WHAAAAAAAAT?!?!" Sinubus bolted upward from his seat as the scared canine backed away. He then began roaring with immense anger as his gang on the deck scattered in fear for the perimeter. With no regard for his crew, the gang leader shot his arms into the air and released a giant flaming loop prominence, flowing from one hand, looping all the way to the high ceiling, and back down into the other outstretched appendage. The temperature of the entire chamber heated up significantly as his fiery outrage ensued for several seconds. After all was over, Sinubus didn't say anything else and walked angrily to the elevator, then reached the bottom deck before walking out, disregarding the many crew that had passed out from the heat inside.

The gang leader stomped angrily down a dimly lit corridor inside the Sirian warship after hearing news of the defeat in the city. "Five teenagers……PATHETIC!!" he grumbled, making his way to his quarters and opening the sliding door. Beyond the mess inside and the rusting furniture, another door loomed ahead on the other side, and the gang leader ventured across his quarters to open it.

Inside was a sort of private chamber—a moderately sized room surrounded with a glass plating that covered the flowing magma walls. A deep bowl was carved into the majority of the floor space, fitted with a grate at the lowest point. Sinubus approached a console that stood by the bowl, configuring the settings for a bath for him to relax in. The temperature was set to about three thousand degrees—only a third of his body's comfortable heat limit of ten thousand degrees. Within seconds, lava began to rise through the grate and fill the metal bowl.

Meanwhile, another evil force came on the scene. A flash of light ensued outside the warship for a split second, and Morgana completed her teleport to the desired coordinates. "Flattened grass," she said, inspecting the landscape. "This must be the place. Time to do some snooping around." Morgana clicked on a small device attached to her belt, and her image became invisible—a much-needed trait for gathering intelligence. Since her new form could also pass though solid objects, finding the cloaked entrance wasn't necessary as she approached the perimeter of the warship. As Morgana stepped inside, the view she saw instantly changed from a grassy plain to a metallic setting. Her entry point was inside one of the many corridors.

Several canines passed by her as Morgana walked invisibly down the hall. "This place is full of dogs," she thought. "However, they look a lot stronger and more advanced than I had imagined. Gruumm isn't going to like to hear this…" She continued to walk until several doors began to pass by. "I might as well see what's behind these doors. I might learn something." Instead of going through the door, though, passing though the wall was the best option. A canine would get suspicious of a door that opened by itself.

Morgana backed up a few steps to the first room she passed, then stepped through the wall. There was a room with tiled floors and many lockers along the walls and forming aisles. Running water could be heard around the room as several dogs walked around wearing nothing but towels around their waists. Seeing that there were also quite a few that didn't, she shielded her eyes. "Great, I didn't come here to see that. I must admit though; at least they have the build for it." She decided to take a last peek at the scene before backing out of the room and moving for the next door.

Her next entry led her to one of the mess halls on the ship. Rows and rows of tables were placed throughout the chamber as hundreds of canines ate, and more passed in and out from the kitchen area. "Hmm, this is a good opportunity to observe the different kinds of dogs." Taking advantage of her cloaked appearance, Morgana traversed between two rows of tables. Fox, Doberman, Lab, Coyote—she passed by several different species before noticing a pair of wolves sitting side by side. "That's strange, I can't find a single difference between the two," she thought, looking the canines over. "Twins? Maybe." She continued looking down the row, and spotted several more matching pairs before reaching the end. "Something's up with this. There can't be that many pairs of twins on this ship." As Morgana started up the next row, she noticed an odd sighting—six foxes all seated next to each other in the row. She looked hard for any contrasts, but was unsuccessful. "This is mad! Sextuplets? The odds aren't in their favor. Now I _know_ there must be something behind all of this." Morgana did some more looking around before passing back into the hall.

Her third room of investigation was a sort of gym. This large area was littered with exercising equipment and the sweaty, shirtless canines that used them. There was a clearing in another section of the room for combat training. Morgana looked around with great interest, unaware of a change occurring in her mindset. Normally, her mind was focused on an infinite childhood, thus showing the reason for her desire to be the younger Mora. The child form had no interest in the opposite sex, but the adult form did. As Morgana was exposed to these scenes, her mind began to shift to that of an adult for the first time in years—a change that Emperor Gruumm would love to see. She walked to the training area and witnessed a fight between two dogs. "Their fighting techniques are advanced; much better than that of the Krybots. Perhaps an alliance may work in our favor…" Morgana continued to watch dogs exercise for several minutes before deciding to choose another room to study.

She had to walk a little ways to reach another room, and then passed through the wall. A messy floor, some personal belongings, various pieces of furniture, and an open closet were to be seen on the other side. Morgana had entered Sinubus' chamber. "What is this?" she thought to herself. "This seems to be some kind of bedroom. There are a lot of seemingly important things in here, so I'm assuming that the person that resides here is of high rank." It wasn't long before she noticed the second door on the other side of the room and went to investigate.

Meanwhile, beyond the door, Sinubus had finished adjusting the lava bath to his desires, and the bowl was filled to the rim with molten rock. Seeing that his bath was ready, he slipped off his black vest and unbuckled his pants, letting them drop to the floor. After stripping himself completely of clothes, he leaped feet first into the magma and surfaced immediately after due to the fluid's high density, then swam for the side and rested his arms on the bank opposite of the entrance.

"I can't believe this is happening," the leader thought to himself as he tried to relax in the magma, despite his thoughts. "It's been _years_ since we've run into a road block on our quest for domination, and the only thing standing in our way is a bunch of stupid kids! I'm not going to let something so weak keep me from reaping this planet for what it's worth! When Anubis shows up to rescue his dear Kat and save the day, he's going to be sorry he was ever created; I'll make damn sure of that."

With another pass-through, the woman had made it to where the gang leader was located, but she stood shocked at the figure she saw before her. "What the--?!" she thought. "How can this be? He looks exactly like that Commander Cruger!!" Morgana studied Sinubus as he continued to soak in the lava tub, creeping around the perimeter for a closer look. "This guy looks like he has one heck of a build……but if he has any relation to Cruger, does that mean that the S.P.D. commander is just as strong? Perhaps I can see his energy level for myself…" Morgana reached into her pocket and pulled out a sort of scanning device, and then aimed it at the red dog that was now only a few feet ahead. After activating it, she got an energy reading within a few seconds. "_29,000_?!?" she thought with total shock. "Most humans don't even measure up to 50!!" Reminiscing to events past, a revelation came to mind. "Wait……this must be that massive energy reading we saw on the map. If the other reading on the S.P.D. base is just as strong, then……Cruger must be _just_ as powerful."

However, her quest for information was about to come to a close as her cloaking device began to spark and malfunction due to the intense heat radiated from the magma in the chamber. Revealed to the hot environment, Morgana collapsed on her knees and began to sweat as Sinubus heard a noise and looked to his side. "What the hell is this?" he asked as he turned to pull himself out of the tub. She looked up from her position to see a large, naked red dog standing before her and was taken aback by his appearance. The term "naked" applied differently to Sinubus, as he had no external reproductive organs due in part to being created instead of born.

As he approached the infiltrator, she became too weak from heat exhaustion and passed out on the floor. The gang leader was getting ready to speak, but kept his muzzle shut when he realized that Morgana could not hear. Sinubus simply picked her body up off the floor with little effort and walked around the tub to the controls. He then set her down momentarily to redress and empty the bowl before taking her out of the chamber and eventually his quarters.

Walking down the hall amidst a moderate flurry of activity at the time, Sinubus began to think once more. "The doctor I took on purpose, of course, but what is this supposed to mean?" He noticed some of the electronics strapped to her suit. "A cloaking device. So she's definitely a spy for some outside force. Looks like we've something _else_ to investigate. On the other hand, I get another girl I could play with. Hmm, but that kitty is so much prettier than this one. Decisions, decisions…" Sinubus reached the cells further down the hall and opened the door with his free hand.

Dr. Manx heard the noise of footsteps and looked up to see them enter. "What do you want with me now?" she asked with irritation toward her captor.

"Geez, must you always be so upset?" he shot back. "You should be happy you have a playmate now."

"What do you mean?"

Sinubus carried Morgana in front of Kat's cell in his left arm as he opened the opposite cell with his right. He then let her slip out of his grip and onto the floor before stepping out and locking the gate. "Found her snooping around the ship. Don't ask who she is, 'cause I don't know."

"I want to know this," Kat said. "Other than being bait for Doggie, what are your plans with me?"

Her constant interrogation was starting to grate on the gang leader's nerves, but he took them in stride to avoid provoking her further. "I'm surprised you haven't figured it out already. Why else would I keep you here, but for pleasure?" He chuckled, but Kat cringed at the thought of this. "Tell you what; how about we make a deal? If you cooperate with me, I'll make sure that you are treated well. Hell, I might even let you out of your cell if you're a nice little kitty. Just don't try anything stupid, or you'll regret it. Otherwise, you're going to absolutely HATE living for the next few days, and then you'll get death wish—one that's nice and slow. So, what do you say?"

There was a moment of silence in the dimly lit room as the doctor weighed her options. She was extremely nervous about the mere thought of "pleasure" with Sinubus, but staying alive would give her a much better chance of rescue. In addition, getting let out into the rest of the warship would give her some possible intelligence opportunities.

"……Okay………I accept your offer."

"Good, I was hoping you say that," Sinubus replied with relief before turning for the door. "You two better get along for your stay. However, fighting wouldn't be bad either. I always love watching a good fight!" He laughed as he entered the corridor and sealed the room, leaving Dr. Manx to wonder about the unconscious woman who now accompanied her.


	16. The Plan

**Chapter 16—The Plan**

Several crews filed past the rangers and commander on their way to clean up the mechanical wreckage left from the destroyed Sirian machine as the B-squad made their way to the command chamber. As they passed by Anubis' quarters, he stopped. "I'm going to change; I'll be right there." The others acknowledged and continued on as he opened the entrance and walked inside, closing the door behind him.

His room remained a horrible wreck. The bed was still upside down in front of the entrance, and several dents remained imprinted in the side wall, in addition to toppled furniture. "I better clean some of this stuff up before anyone notices," he said to himself, approaching the bed frame. Taking advantage of his enhanced strength, Anubis lifted an end of the frame and flipped it right-side-up with little effort, then scooted the bed across the floor and into its original corner. After picking the mattress and covers off the floor and putting them in their place, the room was already looking much more presentable. A few moves of furniture later, it was as if nothing had happened in there, with the exception of the wall, of course. "I guess I'll have to call maintenance in here to get that fixed," he thought, walking to his closet and opening the sliding door. Anubis pressed a few concealed switches on his many chokers and bracelets to retract the spikes, and then pulled one of his trademark uniform robes out of the closet. Once his uniform was zipped up, the commander inspected himself for a second in a mirror by the closet before making his way out.

Meanwhile, Jack and the others were sitting around the central console in the command chamber, waiting for their commander to arrive. "Man, I hope we don't have any more interruptions like that one," Jack stated.

"But that was some robot, huh?" Bridge asked. "I mean, _twenty_ guys ran that thing. All the other giant robots we've fought so far only had one pilot!"

"Yeah, it was some robot," Sky replied. "Until the commander tore it to shreds. Now it's some junk heap looking for the scrap pile. I don't know about you guys, and I know he's our commander, but his power is kind of scary."

"I know it's a bit……overwhelming, too, but it's the least of my worries," said Z. "As long as Cruger's on our side, I will always trust him. It doesn't matter how much power he has."

"Now there's the thing: '_on our side_'," Syd said. "Wouldn't it be horrible if some bad guy like Gruumm was able to use the commander's power for his own evil scheme?"

"That's what I was thinking," added Sky. "If Cruger was captured, and then used against us, I don't have any idea how we could manage."

"Sure, it's something that _could _happen, but we're not going to let that occur," Jack said. Just then, Anubis walked through the open doors in his uniform. "So, I guess you've had enough staring for one day, huh?"

"You could say that," he replied, sitting in the only empty spot at the head of the hexagon-shaped central console. "Now that we're not under attack, we can plan Kat's rescue. I have an idea in mind, but I'm open to suggestions."

Jack spoke up. "How about this. We organize our officers and charge into the enemies' headquarters, and then my squad goes to get Kat out of there while the others fight."

"Well, that's one option," said the commander. "Any others?"

"Hmm, that idea depends," started Bridge. "Exactly how many of these enemies are there to fight?"

"From what I had sensed earlier, there are at least a thousand," Anubis replied.

"And for that reason, a head-on attack probably wouldn't be wise, since our forces don't quite stack up as much in number."

"I had the same thing in mind," Anubis added. "Allow me to elaborate. I'll go alone to their base in a sort of stealth-type mission, sneak in, locate Kat, and bring her out."

"And what if you're spotted?" asked Syd.

"I'll…um…I guess I'll fight my way through the best I can."

"One versus a _thousand_?" Z asked? "I know you're strong, but I don't think that would be a good idea."

"Also, it's likely that you could enter that mode of rage again," added Sky, "but then your focus would shift to destroying the Sirians, rather than the reason you're sneaking in there in the first place."

"I guess I didn't realize its consequences immediately," replied the commander. "There must be some other strategy to use after I arrive that I'm overlooking…"

Z cut into his thought. "Just you? You shouldn't go alone."

"This is _my_ problem," Anubis snapped in reponse, sensitive about the topic. "It's me they want, and it's me they're going to get."

"But we can't just stand back and watch! We're a team, and we fight together."

"Are you denying my orders, Delgado?" he asked with a stern voice, standing up.

"……Yes, I am." She stood up as well and faced the commander as he growled in response to her confrontation. The other rangers thought back to the similar situation on the battlefield in which Z as the yellow ranger confronted an enraged Anubis and was successful in bringing him back to his senses. Realizing this, the rest of the B-squad remained silent, but still a little nervous about the commander's reaction. There was a moment of suspenseful silence as Anubis and Elizabeth glared directly into each other's eyes.

Finally, Anubis gave in. "Fine……I won't go alone. However, the whole squad can't go with me, or else the S.P.D. base will be left with little defense. Let's not forget about Gruumm's prior establishment." He and Z sat down again as the others let out a sigh of relief.

"Then who should go?" asked Sky.

"Well, who _wants_ to go with me?" asked the commander. Everyone's hand shot up. "Ok, that didn't go as well as I had hoped…"

"Hey! We could hold a rock-paper-scissors tournament!" exclaimed Bridge.

"Yeah, until you eventually beat all of us since you can read our minds," Sky replied.

"I succumbed to Delgado's demands, so it's only fair if I choose who comes and who stays," said Anubis. The others slowly nodded in agreement as he turned in seat to face the wall, allowing some privacy to think.

"_I didn't want for this to happen, but I guess I have no choice. Hmm, perhaps I should limit myself to just one assistant; two at the most. Priority always lies with the base, and if Gruumm decides to take advantage of my absence, I want S.P.D. to be prepared. But who to pick, that's the problematic decision. Sydney? No, I don't think she'd survive five minutes with those dogs. Come to think of it, I'm not sure it would be best for her, or Sky or Bridge for that matter, to be immersed in such a situation. I mean, this is a street gang we're dealing with. On the flip side, Jack and Z are a lot more street-wise. I think I've got it._"

He turned back to the squad with his decision. "Cadets Landors and Delgado, please come with me." The commander stood up and approached the entrance as Jack and Z shot a few glances at their fellow cadets before following his lead. The three stopped in the hallway to the side of the entrance. "I have decided that you two should come along."

"Do you have a plan?" Z asked.

"This may sound a little difficult to follow, but please understand. Our first mission upon arrival is to blend in."

"Wait a minute," Jack interrupted. "Are you saying that we have to……become one of them?"

"I said it wouldn't be easy, but yes. Now, once we're accepted as part of their gang, are next mission to locate Kat can begin."

"I understand where this is going, but how are we going to pull this off without revealing our true intentions?" asked Z.

"It shouldn't be too hard. I mean, look at where we've come from. Just be yourselves. But first, we need some guidelines. One: no uniforms. We can't just visually give ourselves away, so just pick out some street clothes to wear, preferably something more intimidating, since we're dealing with 'joining' a gang. I also suggest something that's comfortable in the heat, as Sinubus is a fire-type, so his ship is bound to be hot. Two: no polite talk. That means, don't ever call me 'Commander', or 'Sir', or anything that implies rank. Throughout this mission, I am your equal. Just talk to me as if you're talking to a friend. Three: no morphers."

"Are you kidding?" Jack asked, surprised. "They're going to tear us up without them!"

"Again, I say that we are _joining _them, not fighting them. We cannot risk revealing our true identities."

Jack and Z exchanged glances, and she nodded. "This is going to be some mission," said Z as she looked back at the commander, "but I'm in it for Dr. Manx."

"Yeah, me too," Jack added. "Wherever you go, we're there for you, Comman—err…I mean……man."

Anubis grinned. "Thanks, guys. You guys go ahead and change while I alert the others of our plans." They turned and ventured down the hall to their quarters as Anubis turned back through the command chamber's entrance. Sky, Syd, and Bridge looked up upon his entry.

"So, what's going on?" Syd asked.

"Jack and Z will be accompanying me on this rescue mission. With your greater experience in the academy, it would be best if I left you three to lead the base in my absence. Cadet Tate, you're in charge."

"I'm not challenging your decision," said Sky, "but why them?"

"It's nothing personal, but they have more street experience, and since we're dealing with a gang, our dealings with them should go more smoothly. Do you understand?"

Sky thought to himself for a minute, a little disappointed that the commander had chosen Jack instead of him. Despite this, he decided to let it go; there was a more important situation at hand. "I understand sir, and I am honored to be left in command of the base."

Anubis breathed a mental sigh of relief, fully aware of Jack and Sky's competitiveness. "Thank you, Sky. I'll be back in a minute." He then walked back out and back to his quarters.

Meanwhile, Jack and Z arrived at their own quarters. "So, what are you going to wear?" Jack asked as he closed the door.

Z walked ahead and slid open the closet door on her side. "Let me think about it," she replied, flipping though her casual wear. After a minute, she pulled out a yellow tank-top with a black, short-sleeve and mesh over-shirt, with black jeans. "How do you like this?"

Jack was rummaging through his own closet when he turned around to look. "Hey, isn't that what you usually wear when you're not in uniform?"

"Yeah, but at least it's comfortable. It just needs a few accessories……but I think I'll take care of that after I change." She took her outfit and walked into the bathroom located opposite of the entrance. The door shut as Jack turned back to his closet to continue searching.

"Man, I'm so glad she isn't like Syd. Syd? She'd try on every damn thing in her closet." Jack continued to flip through his hanging clothes until he found some torn blue jeans and pulled them out. He then walked to his dresser and rummaged through a drawer before finding a simple dark red tanktop. Not wasting time, Jack closed his closet and dresser and changed clothes by his bed. Afterward, he took his uniform and slipped it on a hanger, then opened his closet door again to hang it up. As he closed his closet up again, Z walked out of the bathroom in her outfit, and he turned to look. "You look hot."

"Nice response; you're not too bad yourself. Hey, don't you have some chains?"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot." Jack opened another drawer full of odds and ends and dug around until he found a few chains to wear on his jeans. He also pulled out a red bandana to tie over his dreadlocks while he was at it. Meanwhile, Z also located some accessories to use for her outfit, including chains, a yellow bandana, and a few black bracelets. Within minutes, each was finished.

"I wonder what Doggie has in mind for an outfit," Z said, looking at herself in a mirror on the wall above the dresser. "I have a feeling it's going to be something similar to that training getup."

"Yeah, but I hope he at least wears a shirt this time, heheh."

"Hey, if you had that kind of build, you'd show off too, you know."

"I think my build is good enough, thank you. But I still wear a shirt."

"Whatever. You know, it's great that our commander let us stay in the same room together." She walked up to him. "You know, since we've been best friends for the longest time and all."

"Best friends? I think we're a little more than that." They drew closer together and shared a kiss, thankful that their relationship was able to continue after their lives on the streets ended. After a few seconds, they broke away. "Well, I guess we better get going, or DC will get impatient."

"Yeah, let's go." Jack opened the door, and they both walked out into the hall and on the way back to the command chamber. Once back inside with the others, it was evident that Anubis was still in his room changing. "He's not ready yet?"

"Not that I know of," Sky replied as the couple took seats by the central console again. "What's with the outfits?"

"It's Cruger's idea of a 'double-agent' kind of mission to the enemy base," Z replied.

"So we get to see the commander in a different outfit again!" exclaimed Bridge.

"You look excited," stated Syd.

"Well, it's not everyday you get Cruger in something else other than his uniform," he replied.

"Good point."

"Well, try not to get in over your heads over there, ok?" asked Sky.

"Don't worry, I think we can take care of it," Jack replied with confidence. It was then that the commander came back in with a seeming opposite look than before, dropping the jaws of the B-Squad. Anubis donned a skin-tight black and sleeveless shirt, connected to spiked bracelets on his shoulders and neck, and a black bandanna covering the top half of his locks—which seemed to have slightly lengthened. The outfit was pretty close to the same as before with the spiked bracelets, chains, and black pants, only this time a few accessories were added such as temporary tattoo on his right shoulder, and sandals for his feet, since they were too large for normal shoes. His claws were even painted black.

"He's so hot," Syd suddenly blurted. Everyone else heard and died laughing, including the commander. "I didn't mean that!"

"Yeah, sure you didn't!" Z replied with a chuckle. "So, are we ready to go?"

"Yes, I believe we are ready," Anubis replied, and Jack and Z rose from their seats to join him near the entrance. "I can't say how long we will be gone; I want this mission to go as smoothly as possible without any major confrontations, so we might be a while. However, for confidentiality, we'll be using cell phones to communicate with S.P.D. instead of regular patrol morphers, so make sure you listen for us to call, if need be. Take good care of the base, cadets."

"Yes, sir!" they replied, standing with an S.P.D. salute.

The commander returned the salute and turned to exit as the other two cadets followed. "You guys have your cell phones?"

"I've got mine," said Jack, pulling his out of his front pocket. Z nodded and pulled hers out as well.

"Ok, good," he replied. "I've got mine too, just in case." He pulled his out of his pocket.

"Wow, that's the biggest cell phone I have ever seen in my life," Z commented. Anubis' phone was about three times as big as a normal device and was colored black.

"Well, bigger heads equal bigger phones," said Jack with a chuckle.

Anubis elbowed him in the shoulder as Z laughed. "Hey, don't forget how big your head tends to get!" said Anubis in response.

Jack gave a look of confusion. "Huh?"

"I'm talking about your ego, Jack."

"Oh."

The three had reached the end of the hall and entered the elevator that would take them down to the ground level. After Jack pressed the corresponding button, the doors slid shut and they began their descent. "So, what route did you have in mind, Doggie?" Z asked as she adjusted some chains on her belt.

"This is what we're going to do. We're going to leave out of the back side of the base and walk about a mile or so to the southwest, toward the ocean. Their base should be located due south on the other side of a bay, so we're going to take an underwater approach."

"You're kidding," said Jack with disbelief. "That's like a ten-mile swim! Are you nuts?"

"No, I've got a plan for that, too, but you'll have to wait until we get there to find out." There was a slight jolt before the elevator stopped and the doors opened. They walked out into the spacious lobby and turned right down an adjacent hall, getting plenty of strange looks from cadets and staff along the way.

"Ok, I think I get it," said Z. "We're going to cross the bay instead of walking around because you can swim a lot faster than you can walk, right?"

"You're a smart girl, you know that?" said Anubis with a smile.

"Oh, come on, I'm not that smart."

"Sure you are. Hey, I wouldn't say it if it weren't true."

"Heh, thanks Doggie."

Not much longer passed before the three reached the rear exit of the complex, and they opened the doors to see the remainder of the city before the Pacific coastline. As the commander had said, the bay was to their left, with the other side in the far distance. And thus, their journey began.


End file.
